GM supplier Unique Fabricating has filed a petition for voluntary Chapter 7 protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court. The supplier provided plastics, rubber, and foam, and included GM, Stellantis Bosch, Rivian, and Yanfeng Automotive Interior Systems among its customers. The company has faced financial issues for months, disclosing this past April that it was facing insolvency.
Per a recent report from Crain’s Detroit Business, which cites a bankruptcy document, Unique Fabricating has up to $50 million in estimated liabilities and between $10 million and $50 million in assets. The New York Stock Exchange is now moving to delist the company in light of its bankruptcy. Unique Fabricating made its initial public offering at $11 per share in 2015, but stock value has plummeted in the years since, trading at less than $1 per share for the last year.
Back in May, Unique Fabricating arranged an agreement with GM, Stellantis, and Yanfeng Automotive Interior Systems to raise prices and investments until Unique Fabricating could restructure. GM, Stellantis, and Yanfeng agreed to bail out the company with price increases and investment of up to $15 million to provide some financial relief.
At the time, the company also entered a forbearance agreement with lender Citizens Bank N.A. stipulating that Unique Fabricating must pay $1.23 million in past-due interest, attorney, and adviser fees. Concurrently, Unique Fabricating also faced an investigation from the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement’s Interagency Labor Committee for Monitoring and Enforcement after the company was accused of allegedly obstructed workers’ freedom of association and right to collective bargaining in Mexico.
Unique Fabrication posted a $6.2 million operating loss and $10.2 million net loss for Q3 of the 2022 calendar year, with full-year sales projected at $136 million. The company also had $500,000 in cash and $1.3 million in liquidity under its revolving credit facility. It’s unclear if the UAW labor strike played a role in the company’s failure to achieve financial stability.
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Comments
“Unique Fabricating must pay $1.23 million in past-due interest, attorney, and adviser fees.”
So usury, attorneys and union vampirism are the culprit? No surprise. Hardest thing in business is paying the interest to the bank and the vig to the mob controls your turf. And then you gotta pay an attorney to do basically nothing except tell you all the ways you’re gonna lose. This looks like another case of the leeches killing the host.
Why don’t you just stick to a non union brand instead of being a whiny crybaby?
LOL. “Whiny crybaby”. Spoken like a true union goon. Shouldn’t you be on the assembly line sabotaging some cars?
Doesn’t help that it looks like they are based out of Mexico and/or Asia. Probably ran by the cartels who don’t know how to do business if chopping heads aren’t involved.
Owned by peninsula Fund V and deals with mainland china. Good redons.
The Automakers put the suppliers into these situations. Its like Walmart, get the price lower or you won’t be on our shelves. Same, get the prices lower or we won’t use your products in our vehicles. Suppliers are desperate for this business so they bid low and hope they can make it work. This happens all to often
Worked for a plastic injection molding company years ago. We were running great guns. Then GM came to us to start making parts. It was super….at first. But with every new contract, came “You gotta lower the price per unit”! It took a couple of years, but our small company took it on the chin badly. We were lucky to get out alive. Had to move our business to save cash. Laid off all the support staff. The owner, finally had enough, and sold out. Lost his rear end. His dream was shattered. One needs to be careful dealing with the “Big Guys”.
GM is a bad company to do business with. Even 30 years ago when I was in sales my boss told me ‘we don’t want GM as a customer’. They beat you down for a price to where you barely make any profit. Then they want you to jump thru hoops with delivery or special attention. Then you have to fight like heck to get paid.
Funny the GM does the same thing to their ‘valued customers for life.”
Do you own a GM vehicle?
My entire family used to……
Not the answer you were hoping for, huh?
Welcome to working with Ford/Dow/GE/Amazon/Walmart/UPS. Any company that hires from universities instead of from small business owners for their management. This really is the plague of our time. All these MBA’s influenced with too much Japanese and British economics that stress penny pinching. Americas economy was built on small business ethics. Take care of you family and constituents, and they’ll take care of you. These are no longer culturally American companies. Any global company might as well be ran by the British/Japanese/Chinese, and their flawed philosophies.
and the consumer saw these cost savings on their purchase contract… oh wait..
mary msrp barra means savings for gm, extra fees for the consumer.
im looking for a new truck. did you know you dont get the new interior in the HD series unless you spend 10k extra? the 2 lower trims get the nasty old one. that left me so sour im not sure i want to go on any further
Wait 6 months if you are cash heavy- big ticket items getting ready to have a market adjustment- down
They figure if you’re going to skimp on the truck, they will skimp on the dash. You get what you pay for. If you want a basic truck, why worry about the dash.
They supplied Volkswagen Chattanooga as well.
What sort of golden parachute are company management being offered?