Northeast Paper Services of Scarborough, a paper-cutting and packaging company, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
The company estimates its assets at $500,000 to $1 million and its liabilities at $1 million to $10 million, according to documents filed last week in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Portland. Its largest unsecured creditors include Pleasant Hill Development of Portland, which is owed $276,817, and Mapleroc Industries, also of Portland, which is owed nearly $100,000.
The company was founded in 1998 by Ralph Carpenter, former manager of the S.D. Warren paper mill in Westbrook. It takes odd-sized rolls of paper from paper mills, cuts them to custom sizes and then packages the paper for shipping to customers. Carpenter said upon founding the company that most mills cut and package paper only for major customers, and that Northeast Paper would fill a niche by serving mills’ non-primary customers and offering modernized equipment, according to a 1998 Portland Press Herald article.
Neither Carpenter nor his bankruptcy attorney returned calls seeking comment Tuesday.
