Zacky Farms, LLC filed chapter 11 on October 8, 2012 in the Central District of California as a City of Industry poultry producer and processor. The first-day record describes a family-owned, vertically integrated turkey and chicken business with roughly 1,000 employees, 1.9 million turkeys, 600,000 chickens, $142 million of 2010 sales, $146 million of 2011 sales, and about $1.8 million in weekly feed costs. The immediate pressure points were commodity-price volatility, seasonal Thanksgiving working-capital needs, a Wells Fargo senior secured debt balance of $56.47 million, and about $34 million of unsecured trade debt, including $17.5 million owed to Integrated Grain & Milling source filing source filing.

The case opened as an urgent operating-sale case: the Lillian Zacky Trust agreed to fund DIP financing, with anticipated draws of about $71 million through year-end at 6% interest, plus a 3% front-end fee, 1.5% unused-line fee, and $50,000 monthly collateral monitoring fee. The declaration said the debtor had enough feed only through October 10, 2012, and the DIP milestones required sale procedures by November 7, an auction by January 15, 2013, and a sale hearing by January 18 source filing.

The court entered the confirmation order on December 12, 2013, confirming the debtor’s June 27, 2013 amended plan of liquidation after a December 10 hearing. The plan shifted the case into post-confirmation wind-down: estate property vests in the liquidating debtor, a plan administrator replaces Keith Cooper’s sole-manager role, executory contracts not assumed or assigned are rejected, and the liquidating debtor can monetize assets, Secured Sale Notes, estate claims, and avoidance actions without further court approval source filing.