One of Greenwood’s fastest-growing companies is seeking protection from its creditors.
Express Grain Terminals LLC filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Wednesday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Mississippi.
The petition says the company, which operates an oil mill in Greenwood as well as other agriculture-related endeavors, has estimated assets and debts both in the range of $50 million to $100 million.
Chapter 11 bankruptcy allows a company to continue to operate while it proposes a plan of reorganization to keep its business alive and pay creditors over time, often for amounts well below what is owed at the time of the filing.
John Coleman, president of Express Grain, shows earlier this year some of the soybean products made at the company's oil mill. (By Susan Montgomery)
John Coleman, the company’s president, said in a statement Thursday that Express Grain had filed for bankruptcy in order to “reorganize its business and continue its operation as normal.”
He declined to elaborate further.
In addition to processing soybeans into oil, the 14-year-old company operates grain storage elevators in Greenwood, Sidon and Minter City. It most recently expanded into the production of biodiesel, using much of the soybean oil it processes as the feedstock for the cleaner-burning alternative fuel.
That expansion included a $3 million investment completed last year. The most visible part of the investment was the erection of four gray-painted brick silos that tower over the sprawling facility off U.S. 82.
In an interview early this year, Coleman said the company employs about 180 people, two-thirds of whom work in Greenwood.
At that time, the mill was processing about 25,000 gallons of soybean oil a day. It also processes soybean products, such as meal and hulls for animal feed, that are the offshoots after the beans are crushed for their oil.
- Contact Tim Kalich at 662-581-7243 or tkalich@gwcommonwealth.com.
