Update: Tupperware enters Chapter 11 protection.
Tupperware Brands Corp. filled a voluntary petition to enter bankruptcy, a move that would culminate what has now become years of financial misfortune for the iconic brand.
The Orlando, Fla.-based company entered bankruptcy court protection late on Sept. 17 with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware.. Bloomberg News had reported. earlier in the day that it was nearing that stage as Investors of the publicly traded company battered an already beaten stock price on the news, halving the value on Sept. 16 to less than a dollar at 51 cents per share.
It said it will seek court permission to continue operations while seeking a sale.
Tupperware, saddled with heavy debt, has been quite clear in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings over recent quarters that there is doubt the firm can survive.
The company is in the process of closing its only U.S. manufacturing facility in Hemingway, S.C., after previously divesting ownership of the site in a sale-and-lease agreement to raise cash in 2023. The move is costing 148 jobs, and previously announced layoffs were scheduled to begin later this month and extend into early next year. Production, the company said at the time, was shifting to an existing company plant in Lerma, Mexico.
Tupperware's financial woes have brought the company outsized attention for a plastics processor due to the firm's legacy in American culture.
Tupperware was founded in 1942 by Earl Tupper and launched its first polyethylene food container in 1946. Brownie Wise joined the company in 1951 and launched the Tupperware party sales system that led to decades of sales success. But the company has come to rely on international sales as U.S. Tupperware parties went out of vogue.
Aside from the U.S. plant and the one in Mexico, the company has locations in China, India, Belgium, Brazil, South Korea, Mexico, Portugal and South Africa.
Tupperware has seen years of decline in the company's share price, which was more than $90 per share about a decade ago.
An attempt to reach Tupperware for comment earlier on Sept. 17 was not immediately successful.