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As we reported earlier, DSA Member company and struggling Network Marketing company, Home Interiors seems to have failed to emerge from bankruptcy after a reorganization process and is putting its assets up for sale.

Word is that executives at the firm are expected to submit bids to purchase some of its assets.

Home Interiors sells candles, artificial flowers and other home decor accessories through thousands of independent contractors.

“Parts of this thing are probably worth more than the whole,” said William Snyder, the company’s chief restructuring officer.

The new plan could mean more job losses at the company’s headquarters, he said. More than 300 people worked for Home Interiors when it filed for bankruptcy in April; the company now has 131 employees.

Under the new plan:

• Home Interiors’ business assets in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico will be offered as a single unit. Robin Crossman, the company’s president and chief executive, is leading a group expected to bid for only some of these assets.

• The company’s Mexican unit will be offered separately. Fabian Uribarren, president of that unit, is heading a team that is likely to purchase that entity.

•Domistyle Inc., a Dallas manufacturer and distributor of home fragrances and decor accessories that Home Interiors bought in 2002, will be offered as an independent company. Brenda Buell, Domistyle’s founder and president, is leading a team in the running to purchase Domistyle.

•The Laredo Candle unit will be offered as a separate entity, although it may be included as part of the Domistyle sale.

Mr. Snyder said Home Interiors’ largest shareholder and creditor, Highland Capital Management LP of Dallas, supports the plan. A spokesman for Highland declined to comment beyond a Home Interiors news release.

Mr. Snyder said he expects other creditors to support the plan as well.

Home Interiors was founded in 1957 by Mary Crowley; she and her son Don Carter built it into a Dallas landmark.

We will keep you up to date on this as it progresses.

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As we told you a few months ago, direct sales company Home Interiors and Gifts, has been struggling in the past year with declining sales, and a dwindling workforce. The company recently filed for bankruptcy protection. Now it seems they are on their way out.

The home goods company filed officially for Chapter 11 protection in April, and then began a restructuring of the company which included hiring Robin Crossman, a direct sales vet to help rebuild. Unfortunately, the company never got back on its feet. In June they were forced to lay off many employees and now it is looking to sell its operating entities. The Dallas based company announced that they are seeking approval from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of the Northern District of Texas to sell its operating entities.

The home interiors and gifts company is looking hire investment banking firm Houlihan, Lokey Howard and Zukin Capital, Inc. to help with the sale. The company feels that the sale is the best way to get the highest return for the company’s stakeholders. .

A spokesperson for the company says that its operation in the U.S, Canada and Puerto Rico will be sold as one single unit while its Mexico and Domistyle, Inc subsidiary which is a home fragrance manufacturer will be sold as independent entities.

I’m not expert, but it seems like the company has been struggling for a looooong time and thing seem to be getting progressively worse, and not better. If I were a distributor of the company, I might think twice about staying involved, we all remember what happened with Weekenders. While I’m not sure if distributors have been notified by the company, at least the company itself has made the news public.

And….by the way…….Home Interiors and Gifts is a member of the DSA, yet there is no news on their site of the problems at the company. Good to know that once again the DSA is protecting their members and consumers by failing to report news on one of its member companies selling its assets.

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ASD Cash Generator - a network marketing company that buys and sells advertising packages, has apparently been shut down by the SEC.

According to the company, ASD is a “Gateway to Financial Independence.” The company makes money by charging customers fees each month to buy advertising packages that they can they resell. Members can also make money selling monthly memberships to new recruits. According to ASD, purchasers can earn rebates up to 100 percent of their ad cost, and can even earn an additional 25 percent by convincing others to purchase packages for resale as well.

Details of exactly what has gone down are still a bit fuzzy, but from what we can gather, the Florida based company was sued by the Florida’s attorney general, Bill McCollum. Just last week, the company was raided by the U.S. Secret Service and was shut down by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia who claims that ASD was running a “massive internet based wire fraud scheme.

In the lawsuit filed in Florida, McCollum says that ASD and its President, Thomas Andy Bowdoin Jr, and employees, have conned and defrauded countless people out of money and McCollum is seeking civil damages as well as an injunction against the company, its president and employees to stop them from operating their deceptive business.

The Secret Service raided the ASD office last week and seized the Presidents home. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia called the business a “Ponzi scheme, masked as an advertising company. Nobody has been officially charged with a crime just yet, but the investigation is ongoing and for the time being, the company is shut down. The official message on ASD’s website reads:

–Upon direction from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the District of Columbia, ASD will not be able to move funds into company accounts, or out of them. We will work to resolve this problem, and return to normal operation, as soon as we are permitted to do so.
-ASD Management

Bowdoin has not been answering calls, but on a message on his answering machine it says that he will not be making any comments on advice of lawyers. While I do not fully understand the business, something does seem a bit off about the services they are offering, and the amount of money the company has been raking in, is almost unreal. Bowdoin has told officials that he expects sales of more than $100 million this year with ad sales over the first half of the year reaching $40 million. There are over 75,000 members in the ASD network.

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Direct Sales Clothing Company, Weekenders has apparently gone out of business. While reports are a bit fuzzy, it seems that the company filed for bankruptcy protection last week, and then without any notice, closed its doors, yet the website is still active?

The Toronto based company, founded in 1984 by George Raynault and Bob Bailey has apparently been struggling for years now. Weekenders has representatives in the US, Canada, The Netherlands and the UK. There has been some talk lately of the company’s problems and even hints that the closing might be inevitable. However, recently the company launched their spring/summer line and it seemed that they would find a way to re-build. That was not to be however and last week, AFTER the closing, a letter was sent out by Weekenders Canada President, Lia Keeping, to distributors after the company had already shut down, with an explanation for the closing……

Dear Managers and Coordinators,
It is with much sadness that I tell you effective immediately, Weekenders Global has declared bankruptcy. Our owners have ceased all operations in all countries effective immediately. We all know that our company has been struggling for the past few years. Unfortunately, the end has come, faster than anyone could have predicted and I still find it hard to believe, as I was informed at 11:30 this morning. This is not the way I wanted to tell you, unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond my control, I did not find out in time to set up a call or to call you directly as I would have wished, please understand that..
We are doing everything possible to fill all orders and backorders for orders received up to and including noon today Monday, June 9.

I want each and every one of you to know how much the past 23 years have meant to me, how much YOU have meant to me. You have helped me grow both personally and professionally and in so many ways. The opportunity that Weekenders provided has been the best thing that ever happened to me and to you too! You are a dynamic, knowledgeable, classy, fun and utterly fantastic group of women. I am so thankful to have known you, worked with you, cried with you and most of all laughed with you.

I am so proud of you, what you have accomplished and the amazing skills that each and every one of you possess. Take pride in who you are, always remember how proud and privileged I am to have been your friend, your colleague, your coach and your President. I hope you remember all the fun we had together and I am sure our paths will cross again.
Please know, I am ok and I want you to be to. I love you.

I’m not sure this letter is much of a consolation to the thousands of distributors, many of whom say they are owed thousands in back orders and commissions. I also think it’s incredibly self serving to assure everyone that you are ok, yet there are thousands who have no answers at all. I’m sure we will hear more in the company weeks about exactly what happened and the role the execs at the company played in its downfall. It is unfortunate to hear stories like this and while it is not unusual for companies to struggle and even close their doors, it hurts the direct sales industry tremendously when irresponsible companies shut down without warning, leaving their employees stranded. In the meantime, the company should at least take down its website so that nobody else gets involved….

Let this serve as a notice to all operators of Network Marketing companies. You have a responsibility to ALL of the people who both develop your products and represent them. This is a people business and the reason the industry gets such a black eye is because of crappy actions like this one by Weekenders. It is beyond comprehension how people can live off the labor of others and yet when things get bad, you just up and leave without going through a respectable and professional manner to unwind the company. Yes, it is harder to face the thousands of people you have disappointed (and gotten wealthy from) but what you have just done by walking out on all of them is destroyed any credibility you thought you may have. The ending to your notice to the loyalists is a complete joke. No, you are not well - you are a coward and to tell people that the end came faster than you knew is completely impractical and no one with half a business mind could comprehend that. These people gave their time and commitment to you and Weekenders and the best you can do is tell them you are “ok” and want them to be as well. Return their money, pay all the back-owed commissions and shut down your website, then we can start the healing process and be on our way to being “ok”.

UPDATE: (6/24/08)
Ok, here is what we have been able to find out thus far. Weekenders does NOT seem to have filed for bankruptcy protection, yet - at least not in the US (which they would be required to do since they have a business license in the US). All searches of public records have produced nothing. However, since the company is actually registered as a Canadian company based in Richmond Hill, Ontario, we have been unable to search any public records there because they dont publish them online.

We also reached out to the Direct Selling Association (which Weekenders is/was a member of). The organization has not gotten back to us as of this update. It is a bit unusual that the DSA doesnt have a single mention on their website about one of their members going out of business and no information for distributors yet the headline of “In the News” is a 72 year old lady winning her 15th Pink Cadillac - seems pretty frustrating given the Associations mantra of “ethics, trust, confidence”.

We have called the Weekenders Corp office here in the US and Canada several times and just get a busy signal - the phone number we have is 905-886-5995. There is also another number of 847-478-0077 which doesnt seem to work either. Also, we were able to pull up an administrative contact named Shaun Langley who seems to use an email address of davidd@weekenders.com

The Canadian Weekenders website is down but US, UK and others are still live and still pitching the opportunity in their “Message“.

We will continue to provide more information as we get it.

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