A filing made earlier this month as part of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding has caused confusion among some Map Link customers, but the company’s president insists it continues to work on a reorganization plan. One of the country’s largest distributors of maps, Map Link filed for Chapter 11 in December 2008 and entered a reorganization plan this spring. A July 8 filing, however, said that a bad June had made it unlikely that it could successfully emerge from bankruptcy and that it may be forced to file for Chapter 7 liquidation. In an e-mail sent to PW late last week, Map Link president Bill Hunt said the company is “collecting cash, paying expenses and serving the customers. We are still looking at all of our options.”
In addition to map publishers, Map Links other creditors include such book publishers as Globe Pequot Press and Penguin, although the amount owed to those two companies is relatively small. According to the filing, its largest customer is Hastings.
One retailer who hopes Map Link manages to stay in business is Pat Carrier of the Globe Corner Bookstore, which sells a substantial amount of maps along with books. Likening Map Link’s place in the map supply chain to that of Ingram or Baker & Taylor in the book world, Carrier said if Map Link were to close it would be a “seismic event” that would “set the clock back to the 1980's for map distribution in the U.S.” He praised Map Link’s distribution technology and said his store would be “profoundly affected by their closure.”
