UPS Capital Business Credit plans to liquidate all of BIOTA Brands of America’s physical assets if it still owns them after a mandated 75-day redemption period, a UPS official said Thursday.
The lending arm of United Parcel Service put up $3 million for Telluride-based BIOTA’s plant and equipment in a foreclosure sale Wednesday. UPS was BIOTA’s biggest creditor.
“Our intent is to sell the facility to anyone who’s interested to recover as much money as we can toward the defaulted debt,” UPS spokesman Norman Black said.
Financially troubled BIOTA – or Blame It on the Altitude – had been under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection since April but was ordered into a foreclosure sale after it was unable to pay off its debts. The April bankruptcy filing said BIOTA owed more than 100 creditors a combined $10.5 million.
Three-fourths of that was owed to UPS.
The sale, held in Ouray where the plant is located, lasted all of two minutes and had just one bidder.
BIOTA’s owners still hold the right to the company’s intellectual property, which includes the company’s unique biodegradable bottle.
Ouray County Treasurer Jeannine Casolari was surprised by the brevity of the auction.
“I asked, and no one came forward,” Casolari said in a phone interview. “There were about 20, 25 people present and only one bid.”
Before the sale, BIOTA attorney Jeffrey Hart said the shipping giant was trying to put BIOTA out of business and the company planned a $90 million countersuit against UPS for fraud, deception and predatory lending practices.
About the claims, Black said, “I am not going to respond to them directly, only to say that UPS Capital Business Credit has handled this in a professional, straightforward way.”
BIOTA defaulted two years ago on a U.S. Department of Agriculture loan that UPS Capital was responsible for collecting.
The company’s financial troubles worsened when in-house and independent tests of the plant’s water tested positive for E. coli, leading to a four-month closure last fall.
Staff writer A.J. Miranda can be reached at 303-954-1381 or amiranda@denverpost.com.
