On Wednesday, an Oregon court approved Van’s Aircraft’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy recovery plan, and now the company can continue implementing elements of that and looking to the future. Clyde Hamstreet, of Hamstreet & Associates, a firm specializing in bankruptcy recoveries, gave us the view ahead as Van’s works through more internal reorganization and rebuilding of its business.
Among the highlights:
- Van’s will definitely continue the development of the high-wing RV-15 (though it will not be shown at this summer’s AirVenture in Oshkosh)
- It is still in the process of implementing business software that will give it better visibility to internal costs.
- Van’s will build out its quality-control capabilities.
- Van’s board of directors is currently made up of Richard VanGrunsven, Diane VanGrunsven (his wife), Mikael Via, Don Eisele and Rian Johnson. Moving forward, the board makeup will likely change, with the goal of having more outside influence and perspective.
- Mikael Via is expected to shed the “interim” part of his title as Interim CEO.
Van’s posted a video update, as well:
It’s really unfortunate that Van’s didn’t accept the buyout offer from Dr. John Torode (Dynon CEO) and his investors – – an offer that RVG himself solicited last year. The whole Chapter 11 bankruptcy probably would have been avoided. The bankruptcy caused a lot of financial pain for many of Van’s customers and some of Van’s employees as well.
You got that right.
Also, Quality Control was bad!