Two local retailers, Team Choice sports apparel and the owner of a Wild Wing Cafe, have each filed for bankruptcy protection.
Sports Marketing Inc. of Brandon, which operates 12 Team Choice shops across the country, including one at Westfield Brandon, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection July 16. Chapter 11 allows a company to reorganize while protected from creditors.
The company may have to close some stores if landlords won't reduce its rent, founder David Smith said, but he hopes to emerge from bankruptcy intact. Business took a dive in October when the nation's financial meltdown began to weigh on consumers.
"The consumer from the third week of October just drastically changed their behavior," Smith said.
Smith founded Team Choice 22 years ago in Sarasota and moved its headquarters to Brandon in 1996. Smith has eight stores in Florida and four others across the country.
In Hillsborough County's Town N' Country area, Wild Wings Over Tampa Bay LLC also is seeking Chapter 11 protection. Matt and Stanley Ross, listed in corporation records as company owners, could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
The company was a franchisee of the South Carolina-based Wild Wing Cafe chain, said Dianne Crowley, one of the chain's co-founders. The recession has hurt the chain's liquor sales, Crowley said, but other franchisees have been more successful.
Wild Wing Cafe operates 34 restaurants across the country.
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