Cookware company that sells products to Coles, Big W, Woolworths, collapses into bankruptcy

A cookware brand popular among Australians has collapsed as it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protections over in the US.

A cookware brand popular among Australians has filed for bankruptcy.

US-based Instant Brands announced it had initiated a voluntary court-appointed bankruptcy process on Monday local time (Tuesday morning AEST).

Instant Brands is the maker behind kitchen devices such as Instant Pot cookers, Corelle dinner plates, and Pyrex glassware.

The kitchen devices are stocked in a number of major Australian retailers including Woolworths, Coles and Big W.

Instant Brands attributed the tough inflationary environment to its failure.

In court statements filed to the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas, the company revealed it generated operating cash flows of US$17.9 million for the first three months of the year.

That amount ultimately wasn’t enough to save its fate, as it had racked up US$500 million in debt.

The Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing means the company can temporarily retain its operations and attempt to restructure the business without the threat of creditors appointing receivers or liquidators.

Instant Brands revealed it had received a US$132.5 million credit line to turn the table on its negative debt position.

The company is involved in bankruptcy proceedings.

The seven famous brands from Instant Brands.

Instant Brands has offices around the world, including in Australia, in Sydney, and these local operations remain unaffected.

It also has a number of stores in the Asia Pacific region including in Japan, Tawain, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia and China.

The brand also has a large presence in the US, Canada and the UK.

“The company’s entities located outside the US and Canada are not included in the Chapter 11 filings,” Instant Brands said in its market update.

“The company intends to pay vendors, suppliers and distributors in full under normal terms for goods and services provided on or after the filing date.”

News.com.au has contacted Instant Brands for additional comment.

A spokesperson for Instant Brands Australia Pty Ltd said its US sister company was not “going out of business” and that the protections had been filed to “strengthen their financial positions in an efficient and orderly manner”.

The spokseperson added: “Instant Brands (Australia) Pty Ltd is a wholly owned subsidiary of Instant Brands Holding Inc but operations and cash flows are managed by the local ANZ team.

“We are continuing to serve our retail and distribution partners and our community of users without interruption, and they remain our top priority.”

The company’s products are stocked in Australian retail stores.

Instant Brands had been around for 108 years.

Ben Gadbois, CEO of Instant Brands, said the brand had not been able to weather the economic downturn, hence the drastic measures.

“After successfully navigating the Covid-19 pandemic and the global supply chain crisis, we continue to face additional global macroeconomic and geopolitical challenges that have affected our business,” he said.

“In particular, tightening of credit terms and higher interest rates impacted our liquidity levels and made our capital structure unsustainable.”

The company has existed for 108 years, since 1915, and claimed that at least one of its products can be found in 90 per cent of American households.