Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc. continued its slide toward chapter 11 as the company announced today that it plans to restate its results for fiscal 2004, that its failure to file financial reports will put it in default on its credit facility by mid-January, and that it has guaranteed payment of money borrowed by franchisees who are also in default of their debt agreements. Here are earlier posts that chronicle Krispy Kreme’s mounting financial problems.
The company said the restatement in earnings would would reduce net income for 2004 by between $3.8 million and $4.9 million, or 6.6% to 8.6%. The restatement is primarily due to improper accounting of the company’s acquisition of its Michigan franchisee, which is a problem that the company had previously acknowledged. Krispy Kreme has borrowed about $91 million under its credit facility, and does not currently have the capacity to borrow any more.
The trendy doughnut retailer has been hammered over the past year by a lethal combination of slowing sales growth, multiple investigations of its accounting and corporate governance practices (including investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission and a special committee of the Krispy Kreme board), and mounting litigation pressure from various shareholder lawsuits. Today’s news knocked the company’s share price dow 10%, to $11.03 in midmorning trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Krispy Kreme’s stock price topped out at $49.74 during the summer of 2003.
Particularly troubling for creditors was the company’s announcement that about 30% of the $52 million of franchisee debt that the company has guaranteed is held by franchisees who are in default under their debt agreements. Although the company asserts that it has adequate liquidity on hand to pay for current operations, that cash will not be sufficient to pay any meaningful portion of that guaranteed franchisee debt anytime in the near future.
Compounding the company’s problems is an allegation that was made in one of the multiple shareholder lawsuits that has been filed against the company recently. The plaintiffs in that lawsuit — citing confidential former Krispy Kreme employees — contend that the company routinely padded its sales numbers by doubling doughnut shipments to wholesale customers at the end of each fiscal quarter.
It does not look like this is going to end well for Krispy Kreme’s current shareholders. Do you think Krispy Kreme will supply the doughnuts at its First Meeting of Creditors? Stay tuned.