Horse and stock trailer manufacturer files for bankruptcy

ADVERTISEMENT FOR BIDS A Caldwell company that has manufactured and sold horse and stock trailers for 50 years has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

Circle J Trailers, also known as Western World Inc., filed for bankruptcy on Dec. 19, listing $1.9 million in assets and $3.9 million in liabilities.

The company, started in 1958 in Salem, Ore., by Julius Cobb and his son Vern, manufactures Circle J, Bronco and Apache horse and stock trailers and a line of steel cargo trailers called Cargo Plus, according to the company’s Web site. The trailers are sold through a network of dealers across the country.

The Cobbs moved the company to Caldwell in 1960 to be in a more centralized location for selling throughout the West, according to the Web site. In 1976, Bob Bushnell Sr. and family bought the company from Vern Cobb and his partner, Cal Burns.

Circle J reported gross sales of $15.2 million in 2007 and $7.4 million through Oct. 31, 2008, for a loss of $138,608 this year. The company’s liabilities include $2.1 million in secured claims, backed with collateral, and $1.8 million in unsecured claims.

Bank of the Cascades is owed $1.9 million, though it has $1.5 million secured through a deed of trust lien and inventory and equipment liens. KeyBank also has $20,000 secured through a property lien on a $132,971 loan.

Creditors with unsecured claims include several dozen national suppliers, plus a number of local companies, including Pacific Steel & Hardware of Nampa, owed $162,485; Norco of Boise, owed $19,172; and Fluid Control Co. of Boise, owed $8,770.

Bob Bushnell Jr. made a $280,000 loan to the company in 2005 of which $12,000 has been repaid. Bushnell, president and majority stockholder, also made a $65,000 loan to cover the company’s 2007 tax liability that has been repaid.

The estate of Bob Bushnell Sr. is also owed $40,717 for a loan made in 2005. An obituary in the Idaho Statesman says that Bob Bushnell Sr. died on Nov. 10, 2008.

The company operates at 312 W. Simplot Blvd. in Caldwell. A profile on manta.com says the company employs 75 people.

Calls to the company went unanswered.