The Utah company that turned doomsday events into a profitable venture is now facing its own calamity.
On Wednesday, Heber City-based Nitro-Pak Preparedness Center Inc., a distributor of emergency preparedness supplies and food storage products, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Utah.
Chapter 11 allows a debtor to remain in possession of a business while a reorganization plan is worked out with the court.
Nitro-Pak president Harry Weyandt, who founded the company with his wife, Vickie, in California in 1985, said the business continues to operate and will take orders from customers.
According to court documents, the company estimates its assets between $1 million and $10 million. Debts for the company also total between $1 million and $10 million. The 20 largest unsecured claims against the company total nearly $200,000.
At the height of its operations in 1999, Nitro-Pak employed 80 people and had wholesale and retail revenues of nearly $35 million, Weyandt said.
Peter Kalaydjian, president and founder of Emergency Preparedness Products, a wholesaler of outdoor recreational gear and emergency preparedness products based in Tarzana, Calif., said Nitro-Pak was one of the biggest emergency preparedness companies in the nation.
"They got real big, real fast. They did a hell of a job," Kalaydjian said. "Their catalog and their Web site were just absolutely outstanding, and by far they were one of the most professional companies out there."
But as fears eased about a millennial rendezvous with Armageddon and the Y2K bug ended in a whimper, Nitro-Pak's sales plummeted.
Against that backdrop, the company had just completed a $3 million, 44,000-square-foot warehouse.
"The building is the big thing. It has about $2 million owed on it," Weyandt said. "I think we can still come out of this thing here and get debts paid off and live again. We just can't do it with the huge building that we built. That was just a humongous noose around my neck."
Heber City manager Mark Anderson said he is saddened by Nitro-Pak's business decline. At one time, the company was one of the area's top 20 employers.
"I'm hopeful that a new owner will be found for the building and new jobs will be brought to Heber City," Anderson said. "It's too valuable of an asset, too good of a building just to sit vacant."
Nitro-Pak has moved back across town to its 11,000-square-foot location on Heber City's Main Street, the company's first location after moving to Utah in 1994. It employs only five people today.
"I think there is still an opportunity for us here," Weyandt said. "It just needs to be more in a scaled-down version. We grew so fast, so quickly."
Kalaydjian's advice: diversify.
The emphasis on food storage, flashlights and 55-gallon drums is not enough, he said.
"You really need to be diversified to stay afloat in this business," Kalaydjian said. "If you limit yourself as far as marketing is concerned to the emergency audience — which Nitro-Pak has — then you are going to have a lot of ups and downs."
E-mail: danderton@desnews.com