Nova Blue Reprographics filed Chapter 11 Bankruptcy on January 14, 2011

I've previously reported on this blog about the Chapter 11 Bankruptcies of Florida Reprographics (Tampa, FL) and United Reprographics (Seattle, WA).

Somewhat belated news, but I’m just now finding out about this; Nova Blue Reprographics, one of my former competitors in the Washington, DC market area, filed Chapter 11, back on January 14, 2011.

This particular bankruptcy case is still on-going, and, based on the documents I reviewed this morning, this bankruptcy case will probably go on for quite some time.

Nova Blue Reprographics was established by Richard Bartlett, back around 1965, so it is, most definitely, one of the “older” reprographics companies operating in the DC market area. Actually, Nova Blue’s primary reprographics operations are located in Northern Virginia suburban locations. To the best of my recollection, Nova Blue never established any operations in Washington, DC or in the Maryland suburbs. Evidently, Bartlett owns other reprographics operations in central Florida (Kissimmee, FL called “Ocean Blue”, is one of those. I don’t know if his other Florida locations are still operating.)

Nova Blue was never considered to be a major player in the reprographics picture in the Washington-Baltimore Common Market Area, at least that’s my own personal opinion, having been in business in that Market Area, myself, from 1970 until 1988, when Nova Blue was one of our competitors in Northern Virginia. As to the bankruptcy of Nova Blue, I don’t think that this is the first time that Nova Blue went BK; if I’m recalling this correctly, Nova Blue went Chapter 11 years ago; I don’t remember exactly when that was, I think it was probably around 1990-1992.

I pulled off of the Internet several documents filed in the current BK case. But, I’m only going to post (in my Google Docs library of documents) two of the documents I pulled off the Internet.

One of those documents is the original Chapter 11 filing, filed on January 14 2011. Here’s the Internet address for that document: (It’s a large file, so give it some time to load!):

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B81al4kFAU9JZTgwZTExM2ItMjEzNy00MWZlLWEwMjctNDY3OTE3ZGVmNmI5&hl=en_US

The other document is a VERY INTERESTING document. Evidently, the BK Court installed a Trustee to run the company (I think that means that Richard Bartlett is not a debtor-in-possession of the company; he’s been replaced by the Trustee), and the document I’ve posted is a very recent (July 25, 2011) report from the Trustee, that speaks to the issue of what should be done with Nova Blue. If the Trustee’s report and plan are approved, it looks like Nova Blue will be closing a few of its distant VA locations (those not in the DC suburbs) and will be consolidating its Northern Virginia locations …. and then continue to operate. My interpretation of the Trustee’s report – the Trustee believe that it would not be in the best interests of Nova Blue’s creditors to liquidate/dissolve Nova Blue; he believes that the creditors will fare better if Nova Blue continues to operate. Tyler Barrett, son of Richard Barrett, is working alongside the Trustee to operate the business. The Trustee, Mr. Strauss, might be in need of help from reprographics industry veterans, so, those of you who have time, how about lending him a hand.

The Trustee’s report is located at this Internet address: (It’s a large file, so give it some time to load!):

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B81al4kFAU9JMzRjYWNlNTMtYzJhYy00MDMyLThlNDEtNjk0MzllMjk4Mzhk&hl=en_US

If you want to follow this particular case, sign up / register at www.pacer.gov. I don’t plan on doing any further reporting about this case.