Judge to decide whether to reopen bidding on defunct New Mexico peanut butter plant

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – A federal bankruptcy judge has ordered a new auction for an eastern New Mexico peanut butter plant involved in a 2012 salmonella outbreak.

The trustee overseeing the liquidation of the now-defunct Sunland plant in Portales wants to be able to consider a $25 million cash offer that came in after last week’s bidding.

The offer from Canada’s Golden Boy Foods is 25 per cent higher than what had been considered a winning $20 million bid Thursday from a North Carolina company, Hampton Farms.

The trustee says the higher offer could decide whether unsecured creditors will get any payments from Sunland. The company filed for bankruptcy last year following a salmonella outbreak that prompted a nationwide recall and shuttered its operations for eight months.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David Thuma in Albuquerque set the new bidding for 10 a.m. Wednesday.

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