COI Foodservice Distribution and Manufacturing announced in January that 35 more people would be hired. Instead, approximately 200 employees were told Friday that the Tifton plant would be closed by mid-October.

COI filed for Chapter 11 status earlier this month to reorganize debt and, according to Randolph Wilkerson, the company’s vice president of human resources, one of the company’s customers, Road House Bar and Grill, filed bankruptcy leaving COI with $4 million in unpaid bills.

“Going into Chapter 11, we thought we would have enough money to support the company long-term and continue operations,” Wilkerson said. “The availability of funds decreased and had a direct affect on our cash flow. We had to start looking at areas to cut expenses.”

Wilkerson said Shoney’s Restaurants, Ryan’s Steakhouse and Applebee’s were the Tifton center’s largest customers. COI has the distribution center here, one in Ripley, W .Va., and another in Nashville, Tenn., where the company’s headquarters is located.

Brady Day, president and CEO of the Tifton-Tift County Chamber of Commerce, said Monday that the Chamber has a four-prong plan to deal with the crisis.

“This is a very sad announcement,” Day said. “All of our members of the Chamber send sympathy to the employees of COI and our thoughts, prayers and First Focus on Local Business team are with them.”

The Chamber plans to help displaced workers find jobs; will coordinate with non-profit social services agencies to help them; will work to find a new tenant for the COI building and deal with issues arising from the Tift County Development Authority’s financial involvement with COI, Day said.

The First Focus on Local Business team will help those displaced workers. Those team members include the Georgia Department of Labor; the Georgia Department of Economic Development; Abraham Baldwin College; Moultrie Technical College; the University of Georgia; Troy State University; community temporary labor agencies; members of the occupational health industry; and Chamber member businesses that work with large industry.

Day said he has already spoken with a senior member of the COI corporation in Nashville, Tenn.

“We can see the influence of national and international companies, because if something goes wrong at headquarters, it can affect Tifton,” Day said.

Wilkerson said that “skyrocketing” diesel fuel prices have had a direct impact on the company’s ability to make a profit.

“That’s how we move our food products,” Wilkerson said. “Credit terms for vendors were tightened and that prevented us from buying products as easily as before.”

Wilkerson said that he has also been in contact with the Georgia Department of Labor here and that representatives from that agency would talk with local COI employees about their unemployment benefits.

The COI distribution center on Magnolia Boulevard in the Industrial Park has been operating in Tifton for more than seven years.