People are being urged to check their kitchen cupboards for CorningWare collector’s items in the wake of the brand’s US-based parent company’s collapse.
Instant Brands announced on Monday, (Tuesday morning AEST) it had initiated a voluntary court-appointed bankruptcy process.
The cookware brand is the maker behind kitchen devices such as Instant Pot cookers, Corelle dinner plates, and Pyrex glassware.
Off the back of the news, the price of CorningWare pieces on sites like eBay has reached an all-time high – skyrocketing to as much as $17,000 on the buy-and-sell platform, which is $7,000 more than the top price on previous online auctions.
The dishes up for auction feature rare CorningWare patterns, including the “Floral” design (which was available between 1971 and 1975), and “Wildflowers Spice of Life.”
One eBay seller who had tapped into growing demand for the crockery in recent years previously told 7NEWS.com.au that her mother’s collection had “been gathering dust in our home for years.”
“I sold off a few pieces – with my mom’s blessing of course – and have made about $9,000 [Australian, $6,165 USD] so far. I have another one listed at the moment, which I’m hoping to get around $2,500 [$1,712 USD] for,” she told the website at the time.
“I would never have thought that it could be so valuable. When I was younger, I thought it was just daggy. Now it’s making us more money than I ever dreamed.”
In court statements filed to the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas, the company revealed it generated operating cash flows of $17.9 million for the first three months of the year.
That amount ultimately wasn’t enough to save its fate, as it had racked up $500 million in debt.
The Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing means the company can temporarily retain its operations and attempt to restructure the business without the threat of creditors appointing receivers or liquidators.
Instant Brands revealed it had received a $132.5 million credit line to turn the table on its negative debt position.
Instant Brands has offices around the world, including in Sydney.
These local operations remain unaffected.
It also has a number of stores in the Asia Pacific region including Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, and China, and a large presence across the US, Canada, and UK.
“The company’s entities located outside the US and Canada are not included in the Chapter 11 filings,” Instant Brands said in its market update.
“The company intends to pay vendors, suppliers, and distributors in full under normal terms for goods and services provided on or after the filing date.”
Instant Brands CEO, Ben Gadbois, said the brand had not been able to weather the economic downturn, hence the drastic measures.
“After successfully navigating the Covid-19 pandemic and the global supply chain crisis, we continue to face additional global macroeconomic and geopolitical challenges that have affected our business,” he said.
“In particular, tightening of credit terms and higher interest rates impacted our liquidity levels and made our capital structure unsustainable.”
The company has existed for 108 years, since 1915, and claimed that at least one of its products can be found in 90 percent of American households.
