đ„New Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Filing - Uniroyal Holding, Inc.đ„
Legacy retiree and litigation entity files to distribute assets and liquidate
On July 31, 2026, Naugatuck, CT-based Uniroyal Holding, Inc. (âUniroyalâ) and Great Hill Corporation (âGreat Hillâ and together with Uniroyal, the âdebtorsâ) filed prepackaged chapter 11 bankruptcy cases in the District of New Jersey (Judge Kaplan). The debtors are ⊠um ⊠well, they donât have any business operations. Uniroyal was incorporated back in â85 as part of a corporate reorganization of its direct parent Uniroyal, Inc. (âIncâ), and while it initially owned 50% of the equity in a tire and rubber op, Uniroyal sold its stake in â90 to Michelin. It hasnât owned a real biz since.*
Instead, since the sale, its only purpose has been to (i) provide post-employment benefits â e.g., medical and life insurance benefits â to retirees of Uniroyal and Incâs discontinued businesses and (ii) manage litigation, mainly personal injury and wrongful death claims related to pre-1976 asbestos manufacturing (the âPI/WD claimsâ).
Benefits arenât really an issue any longer either. Seeing annual costs rising year in, year out, in the â90s, Uniroyal kicked over, with retiree consent, those obligations and assets to fund âem to four voluntary employee beneficiary associations (âVEBAsâ), which put them out of the reach of any other creditor. Plus, you know, time is the king of men. In â26, there are only 140 retirees alive and their average age is 92.
Which leaves the PI/WD claims as the root cause of the filing. For the background, hereâs long-time debtor employee and president Robert DâAngelo, Jr.:
âFor the last 40 years, Uniroyal has successfully settled or defended claims against it and managed its liabilities, but the sheer number of asserted litigation claims is massive and will quickly become unmanageable upon retirement of the current Uniroyal employee team that has actively directed and coordinated this effort. Since Uniroyalâs formation more than 40 years ago, 516,656 PI/WD Claims have been filed against it.â
Sure as sh*t, that was expensive. Back to Mr. DâAngelo:
âUniroyal has resolved and made payments of just under $500 million for 216,994 of those cases. 264,232 of those claims were dismissed without payment, leaving a total of over 35,000 pending cases. Uniroyal has paid an additional amount of $160 million in defense costs.â
⊠and after 35+ years of that primary work âŠ
⊠the debtorsâ three full-time employees â all between 69 to 73 â are, unlike 99% of the senior folk in the RX industry, ready to retire. Can you blame them? Can you imagine spending decades â literal decades â of your life doing nothing but managing asbestos claims. Holy f*cking hell.