Trucking company Arnold Transportation Services is shutting the doors to its Grand Prairie headquarters and laying off 157 workers in the process.
It’s the latest in a series of issues for Arnold Transportation and its parent company. Arnold Transportation was acquired by Canada-based Pride Group Logistics in 2022, but Pride Group recently filed for bankruptcy and owes a total of $637 million to over 20 different lenders.
Arnold Transportation was among Pride Group’s companies that hoped it would be able to find enough funding to keep its Grand Prairie facility open, but those efforts ultimately failed, according to layoff notices filed with the Texas Workforce Commission.
Pride Group tried to restructure its business and finances through a Canadian law called the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act. The law allows for a company to work through troubling financial times by creating a plan with its creditors. That could allow creditors to control a company’s property while the company continues to work like normal, according to Thomson Reuters.
“The Company had hoped to restructure in the course of the CCAA proceeding and obtain new business and/or obtain funding, including funding for benefits and payroll, by pursuing a transaction or restructuring that would have enabled it to continue operations and to prevent the closing of the facility but was unable to do so,” the letter said.
The Grand Prairie facility, located at 3375 High Prairie Road, officially closed Tuesday. In addition to cutting employees, the company said it has been unable to provide any workers with a medical and drug plan since April 19.
Arnold attributes the short notice to lacking the capital to pay for its operating expenses and wages to workers, the letter said.
“The company also pursued options for securing a purchaser of the facility, which would have allowed the facility to remain open and operating, but was unable to secure a purchaser on an urgent basis in light of liquidity constraints,” it said. “The plant closing was not reasonably foreseeable at the time notice would have otherwise been required. In addition, notice is further excused because the business is being liquidated.”
Arnold’s employees will soon be looking for new jobs. But the problems are only continuing for Pride Group. The company, which employs approximately 500 people, may soon be facing a $100 million lawsuit from Mitsubishi HC Capital over defaulting on its payments.
Other trucking groups like PACCAR, Daimler and Volvo have begun filing claims worth hundreds of millions against Pride Group for similar reasons.
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