[B]ENNINGTON — LaFlamme’s Inc., a furniture business known locally for its iconic 20-foot-tall ladderback chair, has filed for bankruptcy in New York state.
The company, which also announced recently it would close a store in Rutland Town, listed more than $1.5 million in debts and $685,754 in assets in seeking Chapter 11 protection last month in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Northern District of New York.
However, an attorney representing the owners said Wednesday that the intent is to keep operating the store on Bennington’s Main Street after settlement of the outstanding debts, along with a new, smaller store in Rutland Town.
According to the bankruptcy filing, Christopher LaFlamme, the company president, entered an affidavit with the court Sept. 20 concerning the business debts and assets.
The list of creditors includes the Vermont and New York tax departments; Avid Capital, of Cambridge, New York; Green Mountain Power; Heritage Family Credit Union; Serta Simmons, based in Chicago; Washington County in New York; and several other businesses in the region.
The court has scheduled an Oct. 23 meeting of creditors.
Speaking on behalf of LaFlamme’s Inc., attorney Richard Weiskopf, of The DeLorenzo Law Firm in Schenectady, New York, said the company is continuing to operate in Bennington and at a new location in the Diamond Run Mall in Rutland Town during the bankruptcy proceedings.
“No question about it, they intend to remain open,” Weiskopf said.
He said the Oct. 23 court session is in part “to make sure the creditors have an opportunity to ask questions.”
Over the next several months, Weiskopf said, he expects the company to prepare a plan for addressing the outstanding debt for the court’s review. Meanwhile, LaFlamme’s Inc. is “operating as a debtor in possession” of the business and assets.
In addition to the two store operations, the company owns an apartment building on Route 22 in Cambridge, New York, the site of a former retail store that was closed.
The business continues to pay its employees and current taxes, the attorney said.
The ‘big chair’
Outside the Bennington LaFlamme’s location stands a replica of the familiar ladderback chair that stood from the late 1960s through 2000 in front of the former Haynes & Kane Furniture store at the intersection of routes 7A and 67A. The business closed in 2006; the chair had been dismantled about six years earlier because it had deteriorated.
After purchasing that building, Christopher LaFlamme decided in 2012 to re-create the tourism landmark, using a reported 3,000 pounds of cedar and white pine.
LaFlamme’s opened a store at the former Haynes & Kane location later that year, setting up the tall chair out front. An overnight fire in January 2014 damaged the furniture store, which was later razed — for a time leaving only the giant chair standing on the lot.
The business reopened on Main Street later that year after renovating a vacant former auto dealership building, eventually moving the big chair to stand in the parking lot.
At the time, LaFlamme said his longest-operating store, in Cambridge, New York, would close and be consolidated with the new Bennington store. He previously said the family also had stores in Granville and Whitehall in New York.
Weiskopf said the company also previously had a store in Hudson Falls, New York.
