True Temper Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy
One of the most popular golf shaft companies in the world, True Temper, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Oct. 8. The company's court filing in Delaware listed assets of $180 million and debt of $319 million.
According to Bloomberg, True Temper's sales of $39.7 million in the first half of 2009 were 46 percent below the same period in 2008.
In a statement released by the company, Scott Hennessy, president and CEO of True Temper, said, “We have successfully reached an agreement to restructure our balance sheet and significantly lower our debt profile. This new financial template clearly allows for the acceleration of our global expansion plans, and for the continued growth of the True Temper business as the overall economy improves."
According to the company's statement, the "pre-packaged" plan, which was agreed to by its lenders, bondholders and shareholders, will reduce True Temper's debt to less than $40 million. The release described the filing as "a mechanism to implement the agreed upon balance sheet restructuring."
Jason Jenne, True Temper's vice president and CFO, said, "One of our goals during this process was to ensure that day-to-day operations at True Temper remained unaffected by this back-office financial planning. I believe we were successful in that objective."
True Temper, based in Memphis, Tenn., sells golf shafts under its own name as well as Grafalloy and Project X in more than 30 countries around the world.
Posted by: Damon | Nov 20, 2009 12:18:45 AM
Oh yeah, I'm sure it has nothing to do with taking out a big loan for the hostile takeover of Royal Precision.
Posted by: mb | Nov 13, 2009 8:18:36 PM
TT makes some of the best shafts on the market the OEMS should stop beating these guys down and wanting them to produce shafts for nothing
Posted by: mb | Nov 13, 2009 8:17:09 PM
Well with the way these OEM's make shaft companies pay virtually nothing for shafts, no wonder TT is having hard times. OEM"s want everything for pennies on the dollar. I hope TT can bounce back
Posted by: Blizzard_King | Nov 10, 2009 2:15:39 PM
No mention of how many workers got laid off. And how can the most prominent name in shafts file Ch. 11? Every iron set I see has True Temper shafts...Something's fishy here.
Posted by: Hal | Oct 30, 2009 11:49:59 PM
I'd like to check TT's CEO's salary and bonus. I bet he ain't hurtin' like the company is.
Posted by: joe e | Oct 30, 2009 1:16:08 PM
I couldn't believe that one of the largest and most well known shaft company was fining chapter 11. It doesn't make sense to me