Maker of Body Solutions Files Chapter 11

Maker of Body Solutions Files Chapter 11

SAN ANTONIO, Texas--Mark Nutritionals Inc., maker of BodySolutions, filed Chapter 11 to allow it to repay its creditors while still doingbusiness. The company has hired a reorganization specialist to run the companyand work out issues with Mark Nutritionals' creditors, which include radiostations where disc jockeys had used the product and promoted it on air.

Four radio stations--Infinity Broadcasting Corp., Westwood One RadioNetworks, Metro Networks Inc. and Cox Radio--filed a lawsuit worth approximately$10 million in services rendered. Clear Channel Communications Inc. also didmillions in advertising for Mark Nutritionals, according to a report in the SanAntonio Express-News (www.expressnews.com).However, Clear Channel has not taken formal legal action against the company asyet.

Not only has Mark Nutritionals not been paying its radio bills, but it alsohas been negligent with its advertising agency fees, according to the Express-News.Reportedly, the San Antonio-based agency, Big, had to shut down due to itsbiggest client, Mark Nutritionals, not advertising or paying its bills.

Bankruptcy is only one of the company's problems. Earlier this year, U.S.District Judge Avern Cohn was still deciding if a lawsuit filed by residents infive states who had used Body Solutions should become a class action suit. As ofpress time, he had not filed his opinion.

Perhaps to combat these mounting financial problems, Mark Nutritionalsannounced in late July that it had launched its weight-loss line in retailstores such as Albertson's, Walgreens and Wal-Mart. Previously, it had only beenavailable by telephone and through the Internet.

Harry Siskind and his wife, Patti Siskind, started Mark Nutritionalsfollowing the 1998 bankruptcy of their weight-loss cookie company, Texas D'Lites.Mark Nutritionals could not be reached for comment by press time.