Community Corner

Ronkonkoma Company Secures Financing, Pays Off Debt

Lakeland Industries maneuvers to turn around significant setbacks since 2011.

Ronkonkoma-based Lakeland Industries announced it has closed on financing with AloStar Business Credit and LKL Investments to the tune of $18.5 million in order to pay off its debts and judgments amassed over the past year.

The money secured was mostly used to repay $13.7 million in default to TD Bank, its former lending facility. It also paid off a $1.3 million warehouse loan the company had taken out in Canada. 

Last year the Ronkonkoma-based company, which makes industrial protective clothing for emergency personnel and workers in hazardous trades, brought on Raymond James & Associates, a financial advisement firm, to help the company restructure its finances and find a way to deal with a $10 million judgment against them from a Brazilian business deal that went sour.

In a press release the publicly traded company said the recently secured financing with AloStar and LKL Investments will help the company recover from several impacts in the recent months.

"My goal and top management's goal is to turn this Company around after having been hit by four significantly negative events all in a short time," Lakeland CEO Christopher J. Ryan stated in the release. "The loss of the DuPont license, the huge judgment against the Company by a Brazilian Arbitration panel which management feels strongly did not fit the facts, the impending loss of the Company's line of credit with TD Bank and the loss of half of the Brazil subsidiary's sales an as indirect result of the arbitration judgment. The first three events have been dealt with successfully and the fourth we are about to address."

The company acknowledged in its statement to shareholders that the new financing and restructuring were part of Raymond James & Associates' financial advice. The company also said that senior management has taken a pay cut in order to increase its bottom line this year. 



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