First Brand shutters Champion

[OVERKILL]

This is being told as a loss of 1000 jobs. Now, a loss of 1000 jobs in St. Louis or Louisville isn't such a big deal. Except this is a loss of 1000 good paying manufacturing jobs in rural southeast Illinois. There is very little else going on down there. There are likely lots of husbands and wives who both lost their jobs.

Over the past several years, I've bought a lot of ACDelco, LuberFiner, and SuperTech filters, knowing that they likely came out of Albion, IL. Hopefully, that plant will reopen as something else, but the odds of that likely aren't good. Illinois is simply a horrible environment for any sort of manufacturing.

Yeah, would be nice if one of the companies I mentioned takes it over. You really need somebody that knows the business and how it's supposed to properly operate (which Worst Brands didn't have a clue about) to take it over and give it an overhaul, get QC back where it should be.

 

[Hootbro]

This is being told as a loss of 1000 jobs. Now, a loss of 1000 jobs in St. Louis or Louisville isn't such a big deal. Except this is a loss of 1000 good paying manufacturing jobs in rural southeast Illinois. There is very little else going on down there. There are likely lots of husbands and wives who both lost their jobs.

Over the past several years, I've bought a lot of ACDelco, LuberFiner, and SuperTech filters, knowing that they likely came out of Albion, IL. Hopefully, that plant will reopen as something else, but the odds of that likely aren't good. Illinois is simply a horrible environment for any sort of manufacturing.

Not that it makes it any less significant, but I read one law firm website that is looking to do a class action for WARN Act Notice failure that the actual number is like 642 people.

https://straussborrelli.com/2026/02/24/champion-laboratories-albion-warn-act-investigation/

 

[DirtJunky]

Not that it makes it any less significant, but I read one law firm website that is looking to do a class action for WARN Act Notice failure that the actual number is like 642 people.

https://straussborrelli.com/2026/02/24/champion-laboratories-albion-warn-act-investigation/

My thought is they won't get any money, because there is a long list of debtors after what is left!
.... they should have Unionized years ago, at least Airtex Fuel Delivery Systems got a compensation package!(UAW) when they shuttered and moved to Mexico/Carter/ASC.

 

[Hootbro]

My thought is they won't get any money, because there is a long list of debtors after what is left!

Generally employee wages and compensation owed gets front of the line privileges in most bankruptcies before other debtors are satisfied.

Not a lawyer, but I would imagine something could be filed with the bankruptcy court while this plays out.

 

[lbhsbz]

This is being told as a loss of 1000 jobs. Now, a loss of 1000 jobs in St. Louis or Louisville isn't such a big deal. Except this is a loss of 1000 good paying manufacturing jobs in rural southeast Illinois. There is very little else going on down there. There are likely lots of husbands and wives who both lost their jobs.

Over the past several years, I've bought a lot of ACDelco, LuberFiner, and SuperTech filters, knowing that they likely came out of Albion, IL. Hopefully, that plant will reopen as something else, but the odds of that likely aren't good. Illinois is simply a horrible environment for any sort of manufacturing... look how long the Chrysler plant in Belvidere (Rockford) IL has been closed.

I read something about the Hopkins Manufacturing plant....that only the equipment was for sale, the IP and name were not part of the deal, so the sale fell through. I've heard through a few industry contacts that had their hat in the ring that prices were just stupid....like 10 + times what anything is worth. Nobody is gonna pick up the ball and run with it under those types of deals....it'll all probably just get scraped in the end and everyone will lose. It's a shame.

They have a few plants in Mexico....Tridonex in Matamoros and a big plant in Juarez....buzz on Facebook shows employees locked out but blockading the properties preventing anything from leaving until they get paid what they're owed.

It's a mess. I feel sorry for the workers, and hopefully the management will get what they deserve for what they've done to the people and the industry.

One of the companies that was providing funding via factoring is liquidating, and investors are suing other investment firms for bullshitting them....

Based on the damage level, I think (I hope) that these 2 brothers, Patrick and Edward, as well as the rest of the management team that had to know what was going on, get some serious prison time for this.

 

[Arc]

My thought is they won't get any money, because there is a long list of debtors after what is left!
.... they should have Unionized years ago, at least Airtex Fuel Delivery Systems got a compensation package!(UAW) when they shuttered and moved to Mexico/Carter/ASC.

Between the Unions and shareholders products get expensive. If only there was a way to get Union members to buy union made products and support their brothers.

 

[MrkofXcellence]

It will be interesting to see which direction companies like Amsoil and Royal Purple go now that their Champion spec-built filters are no longer available from Champion, especially Amsoil's EA series which have had quality issues as of late.

ACDelco/GM OEM also use Champ Labs for all their stuff…

 

[Hootbro]

I read something about the Hopkins Manufacturing plant....that only the equipment was for sale, the IP and name were not part of the deal, so the sale fell through. I've heard through a few industry contacts that had their hat in the ring that prices were just stupid....like 10 + times what anything is worth. Nobody is gonna pick up the ball and run with it under those types of deals....it'll all probably just get scraped in the end and everyone will lose. It's a shame.

It really is weird what is happening with this bankruptcy. Generally there is Trustees or Administrators that are appointed in Bankruptcy cases like this to keep parties from just letting it burn to the ground and maximum value can be retained to satisfy creditors to some degree. I would imagine at some point, if they cannot find a buyer, it will just go to auction rather than let it go for scrap prices.

 

[jetman]

The AMSOIL EaO filters originally had Donaldson Synteq media in them, they cheaped out a few years ago and moved the whole can to Champ.

Fleetguard has a range of medias, the most recent I think is an updated version of Nanonet, but they went from microglass to Stratapore, which was a media that was laid in continuous strands with no breaks, and was a polymer, so didn't need the same bonding agent as microglass, to an evolution of that process with Nanonet.

There are a few part #'s that cross to passenger car/light truck applications with the Stratapore media, including the Ford FL-820S equivalent, which fits many/most of the HEMI applications (and is the spec SRT filter).

Yes, I have a Fleetguard LF3487 installed on my 242k mile 07 4.0L Toy 1GRFE with Valvoline Restore and Protect oil. I'll be cutting it open soon and posting pics.

 

[nthach]

Based on the damage level, I think (I hope) that these 2 brothers, Patrick and Edward, as well as the rest of the management team that had to know what was going on, get some serious prison time for this.

their lawyers will probably negotiate a sweet bargain with the DOJ and SEC to avoid prison or even a figment of incarceration.

 

[GON]

I'm not really familiar with all of these laws, but I'm a little bit surprised that some of the brands under this umbrella weren't/aren't sold off.

The issue may be the brands under the umbrella were likely starved of capital expense investment, and real assets were sold prior to the bankruptcy. There may not much there for a new buyer to actually acquire.