Stop the auction! That’s what Carolina Nurseries President J Guy did Friday morning after two days of plant inventory sales as part of its liquidation.
Guy interrupted the proceedings during the third day of the auction, announcing the auction was immediately over. He told the stunned bidders, “Go home, go home, go home.” The crowd moved to check out the plant logs sold that morning and all auction sales from the first and second day were honored.
Based in Moncks Corner, S.C., Carolina Nurseries was able to negotiate new arrangements with its lender to have a more controlled inventory liquidation over the next three months instead of selling all the plants immediately via auction. The goal is to ensure stable operations as the nursery satisfies its bank obligation. After taking stock of its inventory, post auction, the nursery’s sales staff and its landscape supply division will resume sales as usual starting next week.
“We appreciate this vote of confidence from our bank,” Guy says. “This gives us some breathing room to continue working with our valued customers in the coming months. It helps us better serve them, helps our revenue and ultimately, affords a solid solution for our loan obligations.”
Last week was an intense one as the terms of the nursery’s financing expired June 21 and then 335 employees learned they would be losing their jobs over the next 90 days, as the nursery liquidates its inventory. “I told (our employees) we struck out on financing,” Guy told The Post and Courier, the local newspaper in Charleston. “The deal we thought we had in hand reconsidered.”