Future Beef filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Monday, March 4, 2002 as eight contractors pursue the company for unpaid debts according to newspaper reports. (See leatherbiz.com February 26, 2002: "Future Beef denies Chapter 11 rumours")

Sources close to the company suggest that production has been unaffected by the uncertainty surrounding the integrated meat facility with a daily kill target of 1600-1700 being met. However, there is sure to be reorganisation at management level and possibly job cuts further down the line following the news that Chapter 11 has been sought. The firm is the second largest employer in Arkansas City, Kansas with some 850 staff.

Questions still remain over how the company, which started with a blaze of positive publicity and benefited from good funding and the latest technology, managed to get into such a mess. Future Beef was held up as a model for the US packing and processing industry and so the price of failure could be very high.