I'm a lawyer but am required by the rules to tell you that I'm not your lawyer. This is not legal advice and you should consult with an attorney of your choosing. I am not a bankruptcy attorney, but I do work in finance and do a lot of workouts and distressed debt deals, and have studied and been heavily involved in deals subject to bankruptcy law. Kind of answering some of the questions I have seen:
1) If you paid Van's money and they owe you a product (even if you have to pay the balance) then you are an unsecured creditor for the amount you paid them.
2) Van's will offer you new pricing. If you accept it then they will ship you your stuff and you will no longer be owed anything and therefore you won't be a creditor any longer. If you don't accept the new pricing by mid-January then they will "reject" your order and you will be an unsecured creditor for the amount you have paid them.
3) Creditors and equity interest holders are divided into classes. In general these are, in order of priority, (a) super priority claims (e.g., people that lend to the company during the bankruptcy, the expenses of the bankruptcy, including attorneys), (b) secured lenders (i.e., people that loaned money to the company before bankruptcy to the extent their loans are secured by a lien against company assets, which in this case seems to only be Van himself), (c) priority claims (e.g., unpaid wage claims), (d) general unsecured creditors (e.g., customers with unshipped orders, trade creditors like Lycoming), and (e) shareholders.
4) In a chapter 7 liquidation, the company's assets would be sold and the proceeds distributed to the creditors by priority of class. As a general rule in any type of bankruptcy, all claims and interests within a particular class must be treated the same. This means that Van's couldn't give some general unsecured creditors more than others.
5) Since this is a chapter 11 case, Van's will not liquidate but instead will propose a plan of reorganization that will address what each class of creditors will receive and how the company will operate post bankruptcy. The rules require that in general a plan must provide for a better recovery than the creditors and equity interest holders would receive in a liquidation. Van's has basically indicated that the unsecured creditors would not receive anything in a liquidation because the inventory would not have much value in a liquidation and the debts are significant.
6) The plan must be approved by vote of the holders of claims (i.e., creditors) and equity interests (i.e., shareholders). Plan voting is done on a class-by-class basis. To approve the plan, each class of claims and equity interests that won't receive 100% recovery must vote to accept the plan. A class of claims accepts a plan if creditors holding at least two-thirds in dollar amount and more than half in number of the claims in that class vote to approve it. A class of interests accepts a plan if parties holding at least two-thirds in number of the interests vote to approve it.
7) It is possible that even though customer claims and trade creditor claims (like Lycoming's) are equal priority unsecured claims, they may divide us into separate classes for purposes of voting for strategic reasons.
8) If any class rejects the plan, the court may still confirm the plan if at least one class entitled to vote has accepted the plan and the plan does not discriminate unfairly against any non-consenting class and the plan is fair and equitable.
9) If Van's can't get their plan approved, then other parties can submit competing plans for approval. This could be someone that wants to buy the company out of bankruptcy.
10) If no plan is approved by a set deadline then the company will liquidate and the proceeds will be paid to creditors in order of priority.
11) You will receive a disclosure statement in the mail in the coming months, explaining the background of the debtor, the bankruptcy case and the risk factors of the proposed plan. You will also be told how you can vote.
