Supermarket, which closed for business in October.

The supermarket had been on the brink of insolvency since 1995 when it racked up $600,000 in debts owed to 63 creditors. The supermarket's largest creditors -- wholesalers Winter Cookson Petty Ltd., Bermuda General Agency Ltd., and Butterfield & Vallis -- were owed half that amount. When the supermarket closed at its Union Street location its executive committee stated they were attempting to develop a reorganisation plan, or sell the business as a going concern.

Back then two of the wholesalers stated they were willing to give the 1,300 members a chance to get the operation sorted out. Now it looks as if all bets are off.

Winter Cookson Petty Ltd. has filed a writ against the executive committee to recover an undisclosed sum. Butterfield Co. Ltd., trading as Butterfield and Vallis has filed a writ against the committee to recover about $166,500.

BDC Ltd., trading as Bermuda General Agency, has also filed a writ seeking to recover $70,853.

Sources say the 1,300 members might be on hook for the amounts owed as the supermarket was not incorporated as a limited liability company. The Co-op Supermarket, run by the Bermuda Co-operative Workers Society had been in existence for 17 years before it closed.

The current supermarket grew out of the Island Co-Op Supermarket which was opened in Spanish Point in 1969. In 1980, the membership organisation closed the store after it accumulated debt of $204,000, according to a previous story in The Royal Gazette .

The store which was on Union Street opened in October 1980 with a bank loan of $240,000 at premises rented from the Bermuda Industrial Union.