LOS ANGELES TIMES: A national ground beef processor owned by Los Angeles private equity firm Yucaipa Cos. and basketball Hall of Famer Magic Johnson filed a bankruptcy petition seeking protection from creditors, blaming, in part, bad publicity over products containing so-called pink slime.
AFA Foods Inc. said it sought bankruptcy protection because it was “faced with an immediate and unanticipated liquidity crisis” and was unable to pay vendors last week without a loan, which banks refused to provide.
The company, straining with too much capacity and heightened competition, was struggling to post a profit when sales began to fall sharply because of “an unfounded public outcry over the use of boneless lean beef trimmings,” or BLBT, Ron Allen, its interim chief executive, wrote in a court declaration… (more)
