Catalina and Cole, in Deep Water, Halt Operations

Catalina and Cole of California, two venerable but ailing swimsuit makers, “temporarily” shut down Thursday and laid off most of their workers after their parent company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Catalina and Cole share facilities in Commerce, where they employ hundreds. Spokesman Fred Slaymin said nearly all the workers were sent home temporarily and that the firms hope to resume operations eventually. But no date was given for when that might happen.

Los Angeles-based Taren Holdings made the filing in Delaware, where Taren is incorporated, Slaymin said. Taren is controlled by Odyssey Partners, a private New York investment partnership.

The collapse of Catalina and Cole is something of a watershed for the local apparel industry. Both have long been prominent players in the swimsuit business--until recently they were estimated to have a combined 30% of the swimwear market--and key contributors to Southern California’s heritage as the nation’s center of swimwear design.

But in recent years they have been hurt by slumping sales and profits.

“I think all of the manufacturers feel badly for Cole and Catalina, because they have been established names for so long,” said Gary Abeyta, publisher of the trade magazine Swim Journal. “But clearly the other manufacturers will also benefit from this.”

Cole and Catalina’s problems stem from stiff competition, the recession, a customer base of aging women who are buying fewer swimsuits, as well as some swimwear designs that were passe, according to analysts and rivals.

Taren does not disclose financial results, but annual sales are estimated at between $200 million and $300 million. The company also operates apparel stores in Southern California under the Outlet name, and owns Colonial Corp. of America, a Tennessee-based maker of private-label apparel. Those two businesses continue to operate, Slaymin said.

Even if Cole and Catalina resume operations, they will be without one of their star designers of the past: Anne Cole, daughter of Fred Cole, the man who founded Cole of California in the 1930s.

Anne Cole, whose name has adorned some of Cole’s product lines for the last decade, issued a statement saying she severed her ties to the company before the Chapter 11 filing. She had been an executive vice president of Taren.

In its filing, Taren listed debts of $81.3 million and assets of $91 million. The filing followed efforts by Odyssey to sell Taren and to reach agreement with Taren’s banks on restructuring its debts, an Odyssey spokeswoman said. Neither succeeded.

(Under Chapter 11, a company can keep operating but is shielded from creditors’ lawsuits while it works out a plan to reorganize its finances.)

Before Odyssey put them up for sale, Catalina and Cole had changed hands twice in the last eight years, most recently in 1989, when an Odyssey-led group created Taren after buying Cole, Catalina and Colonial from Santa Monica-based conglomerate Wickes Cos. (now Collins & Aikman Group Inc.) for an undisclosed price.