Mother's Cookies is no more

[CreekDog]

Mother's Cookies abruptly shut down

George Raine, Chronicle Staff Writer

Thursday, October 9, 2008

(10-08) 17:21 PDT -- Mother's Cookies, an Oakland institution for 92 years, has been shuttered, its owner seeking bankruptcy protection for the company.

The ending was abrupt: Workers for the company, which shifted its baking and distribution operations to plants in Ohio and Canada in 2006, told workers Friday that operations would cease and cookies would no longer be made as of Monday.

The company cited rising prices for raw materials and fuel, and on Monday filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.

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In 2006, Mother's Cake & Cookie Co. was uprooted from its plant on 81st Avenue in Oakland and relocated. About 230 employees lost their jobs.

According to industry lore, the company was founded in 1914 by a newspaper vendor, N.M. Wheatley, as a one-person shop. It expanded and moved to the 81st Avenue location in 1949.

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Catterton said in a statement it "took a number of actions to remedy" the company's financial crisis, "but these actions were not sufficient to overcome the losses and return Mother's Cake & Cookie Co. and Archway Cookies LLC to profitability."

One of those efforts was to seek financing. "But, as you know, the credit environment is very difficult now," said Meaghan Repko, a spokeswoman for the owners, in New York.

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The owners did not comply with the federal law that requires a 60-day notification of any layoffs and said that was due to "unforeseeable business circumstances." A business uses that language to seek exemption from the act's 60-day notice requirement.

The company had many drivers, including 60 in Northern California, represented by the Teamsters Union. One of them, Frank Makely, 59, of Fresno, an employee for the past nine years, called the short-notice dismissal "unimaginable."

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"The owners came in to get rid of us, to chew us up and spit us out," he said, alleging their intent was to gain a profit by selling assets and neglecting service of trucks and other expenses.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/10/09/BU6413DQQO.DTL