Surprised this hasn't been posted yet. Arista Power filed for chapter 7. Arista Power files Chapter 7 bankruptcy
By WILL ASTOR
Rochester Business Journal
January 15, 2016
Arista Power Inc. has declared bankruptcy.
A Chapter 7 petition the Webster wind turbine company filed Tuesday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Rochester states the firm’s liabilities at $2.2 million and its assets at $1.
The filing lists no secured debts. It states more than half of the $2.2 million total—$1.25 million—as owed to TMK-ENT Inc. to repay a revolving loan. Public records show TMK-ENT to be an Avon, Livingston County, corporation headed by Tim Davin.
Previously known at different times as Windtamer Corp. and Future Energy Solutions Inc., Arista’s main product was a patented, high-efficiency wind turbine invented by company founder Gerald Brock, who started the company in 2001.
What led to the firm’s downfall is not clear.
Arista’s last top official, former President and CEO William Schmitz, did not respond to a request for comment this week. The wind turbine firm’s bankruptcy attorney, Mikal Kreuger of Dibble & Miller P.C., declined to comment, saying he was not authorized to speak.
According to the firm’s bankruptcy filing, Schmitz, along with several of the firm’s board members and officers, resigned in November.
The wind turbine firm went public in 2008. Trading over the counter, its stock sold for as much as $18 a share in 2009.
Arista terminated its public company registration last March, stating it would no longer file periodic reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC records show. Arista shares (OTC: ASPW) were then trading in the 6 cent to 9 cent range.
In 2009, when the wind turbine maker, then located in Livingston County, put its first product on the market, company officials projected sales of $500 million by this year. Schmitz, who had previously served as Ultralife Corp.’s chief operating officer, joined Arista as president in 2009.
Citing “willful disobedience of material and lawful instructions of the board of directors and (company CEO),” the company’s board ousted Brock as head of research and development in 2010. Brock would keep a board seat, the company said.
In 2010, the wind turbine company left Livingston County, moving to a 1999 Mt. Read Blvd. office park in Rochester. Officials then projected $25 million in orders for the following year. In 2012, the company announced that 2011 orders had shown a 179 percent increase but at $1.5 million had fallen short of the 2010 projection.
In 2012, Arista inked a $922,000 contract with the U.S. Army and concluded what looked like a promising deal to team up with General Electric Co. to market an Arista system that would use a new G.E. battery. The company scored a second $625,000 Army contract in 2013.
In 2013, the most recent year for which Arista publicly reported full-year financial results, the company stated a $3.3 million net loss on revenue of $2.2 million. The 2013 loss was down from $3.5 million in red ink on revenue of $1.99 million in 2012.
Citing anticipated sales of its Power on Demand energy saving system, Arista moved to larger quarters in 2013, taking additional office and manufacturing space at the Mt. Read Boulevard office park.
The firm relocated to Webster last year. Arista’s former landlord, 1999 MT RB LLC, sued Arista last June in an ongoing action, state Supreme Court records show.
While Arista’s bankruptcy petition lists the case as a no-asset filing, whether there are company assets that might be sold to pay Arista’s creditors in a liquidation is not clear.
The firm’s bankruptcy petition states Arista’s assets at $1, but the company also lists materials and equipment of unknown value as property it owns.
The list includes raw materials, components and equipment at the firm’s 680 Basket Road headquarters, a partially installed system at Zweigles Inc., goods held for resale at Sentry Safe, and materials for an in-progress project at Queens Landing Inc., an upscale New York City waterfront high-rise.
Queens Landing also appears in the filing as a creditor owed $96,560.
Other property Arista lists in the bankruptcy filing includes office furniture, fixtures and phones it left at its former Mt. Read Boulevard quarters.
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