May 11, 2023
Auction: ULT to Liquidate Two Locations
LED lamps, fixtures, drivers and other equipment for sale
When private equity firm, Atar Capital, abruptly shut down Universal Douglas on March 22, the company had a long list of finished goods inventory that it sought to ship to customers with clearance sale orders, but alas, the company cites hundreds of thousands of units of unsold inventory will soon be sold through Myron Bowling Auctioneers. In addition to finished goods, the company will be liquidating test equipment, forklifts and office furniture among other items.
The items up for liquidation come from two Universal Lighting Technologies locations: the warehouse in La Vergne, Tennessee, and the R&D facility in Madison, Alabama.
Tennessee location:
The goods being offered are from ULT’s distribution center in the Nashville area, not its office building. There seem to be two waves, immediate sale for the finished goods inventory and then items not sold will be offered at auction during a June 22 webcast along with warehouse goods like pallet racking, reach trucks, order pickers, forklifts, shrink wrappers and other warehouse equipment.
There don’t seem to be any clear guidelines on the quote and order process for “immediate sale” items. We reached out to the auction company and will update this article if we get more details.
Alabama location:
This site was the home to ULT engineering, but other activities occurred there including testing and light assembly for certain special orders like ones that required American-made products also occurred in the Huntsville-area facility.
- Hundreds of pieces of test and measurement equipment
- More than 20 environmental test chambers
- Various types of manufacturing and automation equipment
- Complete maintenance shop
- Spare parts
- Raw materials and components
- Assorted forklifts
- Executive office furniture
Is this a sign that Universal Lighting Technologies and Douglas Lighting Controls will not reemerge?
If this auction was solely for leftover items in a leased Tennessee distribution center, we wouldn’t read too much into the liquidation, but the Huntsville facility liquidation is a sign that either potential buyers have no interest in the R&D assets there, or Atar Capital’s endgame may be complete shutdown.
This Universal Douglas saga likely has a number of chapters left. The factory in Matamoros, Mexico seems to be an important part of whatever future the two lighting and controls brands have. The factory dispute with the local labor union hasn’t made much progress, which could in turn complicate any future asset sales involving the Mexico facility.
More information about the auction:
