Bogart Golf filing for bankruptcy
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Suffering the effects of a slowdown in the golf industry, a slumping economy and a crippling amount of debt, Bogart Golf is expected to file for bankruptcy protection during the next several days.
The move comes after a last-ditch effort to find more investors for the Bellevue golf instruction center fell apart yesterday.
Kass Sells, president and chairman of Bogart Golf, said all of the company's instruction centers — in the Seattle, Denver, Dallas, Houston and Atlanta areas — would be shut permanently. The company's 37 employees were laid off Sunday, he said.
"We were making every effort to keep the company financially viable with our existing shareholders and strategic partners," said Sells. "We just couldn't do it fast enough."
In recent months, Bogart officials had been in talks with several investors about selling the company. When those discussions broke off Saturday night, and talks yesterday with other investors were unsuccessful, the company said it was folding. It did not identify the potential investors.
Sells said Bogart Golf experienced a severe slowing in the fourth quarter, a trend that continued into this year.
"We're not the first retail company, and unfortunately not the last, to struggle," Sells said. "New concepts struggle in hard times."
Bogart Golf tried to capitalize on the increasing popularity of golf, offering "branded" instruction and skill classes. The instructors were PGA pros who helped people improve their swing using interactive video.
The company took an aggressive business approach, planning to roll out dozens of instruction centers in major cities across the U.S. It had four locations in the Puget Sound area: in Bellevue, Seattle, Redmond and Tukwila.
But the company had taken on a large amount of debt related to its expansion into other markets, said Sells, and was due to open its Atlanta centers just a few days after Sept. 11. The stock market slid, and the Seattle and Atlanta economies were particularly hard hit.
"The golf industry has slowed," he said. "Golf is certainly not a necessity for people; it's a luxury."
Bogart Golf cut its expenses by 10 percent every month since November, but it wasn't enough to save the company. Bogart officials plan to meet in the next few days to explore Chapter 7 and Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, said Sells. The company, which started in October 1999, had raised about $5 million in private capital.
"The concept was so good, and it worked," Sells said. "We improved a lot of people's golf games."
Caitlin Cleary can be reached at 206-464-8214 or ccleary@seattletimes.com.