Cameron Glass materials auctioned off; potential buyers show interest in plant

KALAMA - Potential buyers are emerging to restart the Cameron Family Glass plant, even though thousands of wine bottles, boxes and raw materials such as sand sold for bargain prices at a bankruptcy auction at the plant Wednesday.

The morning auction, conducted by auctioneer Tim Murphy, included the inventory and materials left over after the $109 million plant shut down in September. The proceeds, which the auctioneer did not release, will go to some of Cameron's more than 170 creditors.

The Wednesday auction attracted about 30 bidders, including small wineries and industrial businesses looking for good deals on plastic wrapping, pallettes and machine lubricant. One buyer purchased 31,000 unused bottles for 60 cents a piece - as little as one-third of what a wine maker would pay a manufacturer.

The larger foreclosure auction - where bidders will have a chance to buy the whole Cameron plant on the 12.8-acre site - had been scheduled for Friday. However, it has been pushed back to 10 a.m. March 26 at the Cowlitz County administration building, said Joe Schickich, attorney for Northwest Farm Credit Services, Cameron's largest creditor. The company owes the bank about $60 million.

At least four buyers appear to be interested in buying the plant and making wine bottles, as opposed to dismantling the plant and selling off its equipment, said Lanny Cawley, director of the Port of Kalama, where the plant is located.

One potential buyer, who declined to be identified, attended Wednesday's two-hour inventory auction, held in the plant's spacious warehouse.

The foreclosure auction was likely pushed back because Northwest Farm has received more interest in the plant, Cawley said. A buyer would need to install a new furnace, costing about $6 million, but the plant could produce bottles, he said.

"This plant is ready to go. Everything is brand new and high functioning," Cawley said.

Wednesday's auction was relatively short, and some can last as long as 14 hours, according to Murphy. Much of the inventory was branded with the Cameron name or made to the family's specifications, so the next owner of the plant would have little use for them, he said.

Most of the items attracted only two or three bids before they were sold.

A massive molten glass leak from the plant's 470-ton melter halted production and damaged the plant's furnace in January, less than a month after the plant opened. The leak cost the Camerons about $12 million in damages and lost sales by halting production for about six months, according to bankruptcy court documents.

After Northwest Credit called in the Camerons' loan in September and shut down the plant, the company declared Chapter 7 bankruptcy. A court-appointed receiver will liquidate the company's assets to pay back creditors, who are owed as much as $100 million.

Longview-based JH Kelly, which built the plant, has an $8.1 million construction lien on the plant.