Pico Chicago Inc., part of Pico North America, filed for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy on Nov. 13 with the Northern Illinois Bankruptcy Court. Pico Chicago is located in Schaumburg, Ill., about 30 miles northwest of McCormick Place. It also served as Pico North America’s headquarters building.
On Nov. 16, 2011, exactly one year to the day, Pico North America announced that it completed an expansion of its headquarters in Schaumburg. The expansion doubled Pico’s office space used by staff servicing clients in the tradeshow industry.
According to its website, Pico North America also has offices in Atlanta and California. These locations are independent of the Chicago filing.
Representatives for Pico Chicago and Pico North America could not be reached for comment.
Photo by Don Svehla
At the time of the filing, Pico Chicago had assets valued at under $500,000, and its liabilities ranged from $1 million – $5 million. According to the court filings, some of the more than 50 companies Pico Chicago owe money to include GES, Fern Expositions, Hargrove and several international companies operating under the Pico name.
According to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, a company stops all operations and goes completely out of business when it files for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy. A trustee is then appointed to liquidate the company’s assets and the money is used to pay off any debt to creditors and investors.
This is not the first Pico North America office to contemplate bankruptcy. In March 2010, the Atlanta branch announced its plans to file for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy in the U. S. Court for the Northern District of Georgia. Company officials said the Atlanta filing would not affect the rest of the company’s North American operations.
At the time of the Atlanta announcement, James Winski, general manager of the Schaumburg office, said the move was intended to make Pico’s North American holdings more sustainable and better equipped in helping its customer base, and the company didn’t anticipate any disruption of work for its clients.
Pico Far East Holdings Limited, the parent company for Pico North America, is a global marketing company specializing in exhibition, event and show management. The company was recently honored with the Event Marketing Agency of the Year 2012 Gold Award, presented by Marketing Magazine.
Pico Far East Holdings recently announced that revenue from the previous six-month period ending on April 30, 2012, increased almost 30 percent versus the same time period in 2011. Profit also was up 13.4 percent, reaching $93 million.
