Amid bankruptcy reorganization, GuildMaster Inc. this month opened its first designer showroom in Springfield.
The 3055 E. Division St. showroom joins the Springfield-based home furnishings manufacturer's locations in Dallas, Atlanta, Las Vegas and High Point, N.C., according to a news release.
The Springfield showroom opens today for a three-day public sale and will be open to the public once a month. The rest of the month, the showroom will available by appointment for interior designers.
In late September, U.S. bankruptcy Judge Arthur Federman approved GuildMaster's Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization plan that included a purchase agreement by management and a group of unnamed investors. The investor group committed more than $1 million in capital to help the Springfield company navigate through the bankruptcy process, according to
Springfield Business Journal archives.
The reorganization plan, which had been filed nine months prior, effectively regulates the company as private.
The judge's decision came a month after the beleaguered company was sentenced to five years of probation for illegal imports. GuildMaster pleaded guilty in mid-July to three months of importing lamps with counterfeit safety certification labels from a wholly owned Chinese manufacturer. During the federal investigations, a significant portion of its inventory was confiscated in the first quarter of last year, according to SBJ archives.
The new showroom shares the same address as Jack Stack's Great Game of Business. Helping to finance GuildMaster during the years was Quest Capital Alliance, a venture capital firm born with the help of funds from the Stack-led Springfield Remanufacturing Corp.
GuildMaster officials could not be reached for comment about the showroom this morning, as they were participating in a companywide meeting, according to a voice recording left on the corporate phone line.[[In-content Ad]]
