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No layoffs, store closings expected as M.W. Sewall files for Chapter 11
BATH, Maine -- As reported in a CSP Daily News Flash yesterday. M.W. Sewall & Co., a 122-year-old heating oil and convenience store, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, according to court documents cited by The Brunswick Times Record. Bath, Maine-based M.W. Sewall employs more than 150 people and operates 15 Clipper Mart convenience stores, car washes and service centers along Route 1 between Boothbay and Saco, Maine.

The Chapter 11 process allows the company, founded in 1887, to undergo a restructuring process while staying in business.

According [image-nocss] to information filed with the court, M.W. Sewall owes CITGO Petroleum $1.19 million, the largest amount owed to any of its creditors. Pine State Trading Co. claims the second most with more than $282,000 due, while New England Petroleum is owed more than $209,000 and the Maine State Lottery Commission is owed nearly $152,000, said the report.

Weak business at the company's modular housing division, Landmark Homes, and last summer's run-up in oil prices led to the filing, the company's attorney, George Marcus, told Mainebiz in a separate report. No layoffs, store closings or major service changes are planned. "This should be invisible to the customer," he told the newspaper.

Along with the CITGO-branded Clipper Mart stores, the company operates six Love That Car Wash Too locations. Service range from 24-hour self-service bays to touchless and full-service car washes. It recently opened a new touchless car wash in Manchester, N.H. The company also delivers heating oil and propane through out the Mid Coast Region, offering sales and service on oil and propane heating equipment. And it sells plumbing equipment including fixtures, boilers and heaters; furnaces; and fireplaces, hearths and wood stoves.

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