Mrs. Field's may be filing for bankruptcy

by Shayna Glick, Posted Aug 16th 2008 @ 11:58AM

Close up view of a chocolate chip cookie on a white background.

It appears that right now is not a good time to be in the food business. First Bennigan's closed the majority of their stores and now Mrs. Field's Famous Brand is planning on filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

According to Forbes, the cookie maker won't be able to make a scheduled debt payment in September. The company is currently "soliciting votes from creditors for a 'prepackaged' bankruptcy reorganization plan." That means that the people in charge at Mrs. Field's are talking to creditors to see if they'll agree to the company's reorganization plans. So far about two thirds of the creditors have agreed to the prepackaged bankruptcy deal.

For the plan to go through, Mrs. Field's has to file by August 25. It's been forever since I had a Mrs. Field's cookie, and if lots of other consumers are like me, that's probably part of the reason they're heading into bankruptcy. Are Mrs. Field's products good enough to save, or should the company just give it up?

[via Coldmud]

Filed Under: Business, Bakeries
Tags: bankruptcy, chapter 11, Chapter11, cookies, Mrs Fields, MrsFields, reorganization

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

8-16-2008 @1:13PM Ed T said... Mrs. Fields is just one of dozens of chains operating on the edge as consumers pull back and our consumption-driven economy weakens. Too bad, so sad for the owners and shareholders -- they bet on the wrong horse.

Were their cookies special in any way? IMO no.
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8-16-2008 @1:24PM Michele said... I never thought that their cookies were special in any way. Still it's a shame to see a long standing company struggle.
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8-16-2008 @2:51PM drwende said... They're aiming for chapter 11, so the brand won't go away.

The Forbes article says they can't make the interest payments on their debt, so the problem isn't *necessarily* a huge drop in sales. Many of these companies owned by private equity firms have HUGE debt loads, so that a dinky little drop in same-store sales puts them in the weeds. And Mrs. Fields had long ago stopped doing anything special to promote brand loyalty -- it's just kind of there, in the mall, hoping you want a sort of average cookie.
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8-16-2008 @3:13PM phantom.trollbooth said... Sounds like it's a bad time to be in the crappy over-priced food business.
I won't mourn the passing of any chain food factory.
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8-16-2008 @7:15PM sue said... Its a shame that the company is in financial trouble.
Debbi sold the stores long ago. I can't help but wonder if she was at the helm that the stores would have turned profit.
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8-18-2008 @3:12AM steven marks said... It's too bad for the franchise owners of Mrs. Fields, they put their faith on a loser. Those cookies though good cost a small fortune! They're definately not woth the price and in today's economy, there are better ways to satisfy your taste buds for a heck of a lot less.
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8-18-2008 @9:25AM naughtydogcafe said... I never thought the cookies were very good. They are way too expensive, and since I can get a better cookie from a locally owned and operated business, I guess I'm not too concerned about Mrs. Fields filing for bankruptcy. I bake for a living (dog food not people food), but they're markup is way high. They've got to be making a pretty good margin on their product. Once again excessive greed comes back to bite you.
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8-18-2008 @10:05AM Astin said... As stated above, it's Chapter 11, so it's a reorganization, not a closure. This protects them from creditors and debtholders until they come out of the reorganization. Bennigan's filed for Chapter 7, which is a closure.

I imagine we'll see some locations close, cookies shrink (along with prices perhaps), menus change, employees get let go, loans refinanced, etc..

Mrs. Fields may not be anything special, but they're still the easiest place to get a cookie in a mall or something different than a cake for someone. They do have a niche, they just need to adjust their business to make it profitable in an economic downturn when people are less willing to spend money on something like a cookie.
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8-18-2008 @2:58PM Marianne said... I must agree with other comments. Good cookies..not great and can be replicated in local bakeries or in our own kitchens (gasp) and waaaaay overpriced. In today's downturned economy, these cookies and other $$$ delights (Starbucks comes to mind) have really outgrown
their beginnings.
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8-18-2008 @6:58PM R-Bro said... Wayyyyyy too expensive. Make your cookies a buck apiece and make up the difference through higher volume. How did they not get that?
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