PRESQUE ISLE – Pepsi-Cola Bottling Co. of Aroostook recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and that has put some redemption center operators in a tight spot.

Some lost several thousand dollars when the company failed to pay for bottles and cans it collected.

“They stuck all the redemption centers when they went into Chapter 11 in November,” said Duane Cole, who operates a redemption center in Littleton with his wife, Marilyn.

Gregory Freeman, owner of the company, said Monday that he preferred not to comment on the bankruptcy, but said the company would release a formal statement next week.

“We’re not going out of business,” Freeman said by telephone, adding that Chapter 11 will allow the company to reorganize. “We’re doing this to stay in business.

“It’s a business decision,” he said. “We didn’t want to; we felt we had to.”

Pepsi-Cola Bottling Co. of Aroostook was founded in 1946. It is a franchised company operating under license from Pepsico Inc.

According to documents on file in Maine Bankruptcy Court in Portland, the Presque Isle company filed for Chapter 11 protection on Nov. 29. No list of assets or debts has been filed yet, and according to the court documents, March 9, 2002, has been set as the date on which the company must file disclosure and reorganization plans.

The court has granted the company permission to use cash collateral to pay employee wages, salaries and related expenses prior to filing Chapter 11.

The documents list Epic Enterprises Inc. of Ayer, Mass., the company that cans Pepsi-Cola, and the Katahdin Trust Co. as creditors. Attorneys for those creditors could not be reached on Monday.

A spokesman for Pepsico Inc. in New York did not return calls.

Redemption center operators are upset because they didn’t know about the bankruptcy until they stopped getting checks or their banks returned the checks paid to them by the company.

What aggravates them more is that even while the company was planning to go into Chapter 11, it continued to collect returnable containers from the redemption centers.

For Mike Bouchard, who operates Bennett Drive Redemption Center in Caribou, that cost him more than $4,000 for the three weeks prior to the bankruptcy action.

Bouchard has continued to collect products distributed by the company and has gotten his checks for returnable containers collected this month.

Redemption center operators in the Houlton area aren’t sure if they’ll get their money. Because of that, they have stopped paying return deposits for Pepsi and other products handled by the Presque Isle company.

Ralph Levesque, who operates the Bangor Street Redemption Center in Houlton, is holding onto the returnables for customers, if they want to leave them. He has them in plastic bags marked with the customers’ names and how much they’re owed.

“When I get paid, they’ll get paid,” he said Monday.

He said he has been told by Pepsi of Aroostook to be patient, but he’s worried.

“Who’s to say we’ll ever get paid for any of that?” he said. “It’s really risky.”

Brad Graham, who operates Graham’s Redemption Center in Houlton, has a list of 124 drink products posted on his door that are distributed by the Presque Isle bottler for which he will no longer pay. The list includes not just Pepsi-Cola products, but Lipton Iced Tea, All-Sport power drink, Ocean Spray juices, and Starbucks Frappachino coffee drink, to name a few.

“We’re boycotting the products because we’re not being paid,” Graham said Monday at his center.

“We’re on a shoestring [budget] as it is,” he continued. “I’m missing money, but my business goes on.”

Customers at Graham’s can take their returnables back with them or they can leave them to be placed in a special box. Graham said if Pepsi of Aroostook begins paying again, the proceeds from whatever is in the special box will go to the local hockey program.

It’s not just the redemption centers that are losing. Graham said cheerleaders from Houlton Junior High School who had a bottle drive over the weekend will lose as much as $40 of what they collected. Employees at Bennett Drive Redemption Center might not get their year-end bonuses.

Bouchard said he pays minimum wage, but for employees who stay with him for the year, he gives them a bonus in December. He was going to pay those bonuses last week, but since he has lost more than $4,000, he hasn’t been able to do that.

Redemption center operators contacted on Monday said the products distributed by Pepsi of Aroostook account for about a fourth of their income.

“It’s a big, big chunk of our business,” said Bouchard. “I’ve got to try to keep afloat until the dust settles.”