Phranil Foods Co., a longtime Spokane pie maker formerly known as Verns Pie Co., has ceased operating, and a trustees sale of its East Spokane property has been scheduled.


A recently published legal notice says Phranil has defaulted on a financial obligation secured by a deed of trust, and now is tardy on payments and late charges totaling more than $393,000. The notice says the companys property at 3900 E. Main will be sold to the highest bidder at a trustees sale on April 9 at the Spokane County Courthouse unless the debt is paid.


Fran Bessermin, the companys president, couldnt be reached for comment. However, attorneys familiar with the company say that it closed its doors months ago, and theres little or no chance the foreclosure action will be averted.


Phranils closure apparently leaves the Spokane area with just one sizable commercial pie-making business, Cyrus OLearys Wholesale Pies, which built a 35,000-square-foot production facility in Airway Heights two years ago and moved there from smaller quarters downtown.


In the latter 1990s, Phranil was producing 20,000 to 25,000 pies a day, with a work force that fluctuated seasonally between about 25 and 35 employees, and was generating $6 million a year in sales. Its pies were being sold in supermarkets under a number of private labels, and its customers included such major chains as Boise-based Albertsons Inc. and Pasadena, Calif.-based Trader Joes. At that time, Phranil was looking at potentially doubling its production, based on new orders and an ambitious expansion strategy, but it apparently later fell on hard times.


The company was started here in 1940 as Verns Pie Co. Initially, it baked and distributed fresh, rather than frozen pies. In 1982, Bessermin and her husband, Phil, bought the business, which by then was distributing both fresh and frozen pies, and kept the Verns name.


Several years later, the company began producing only frozen pies to be sold under private labels, and the Bessermins renamed the business.


She and her husband both continued to work at the business until 1990, when she ran for and was elected to the County Commission in Stevens County, which took her away from much of the businesss day-to-day operation. However, she was forced to resume operating it, together with her son, Craig, after her husband died in late 1994. It moved in January 1995 to the location on Main Avenue from much smaller quarters in the west 1700 block of Sharp Avenue.


The legal notice says Phranils original financial obligation to the Greater Spokane Business Development Association was transferred last year by the U.S. Small Business Administration to Jack Brace, owner and CEO of Trumark Industries Inc. Trumark is located at 4020 E. Main, across the street from the Phranil property.


The notice indicates that a large portion of the sum on which Phranil is tardy is money that Brace has paid to Washington Trust Bank, which has a superior deed of trust, to keep an obligation to the bank current. The total amount owed by Phranil, including principal and payments that Brace has made to Washington Trust, is more than $770,000, according to the notice.


On Braces behalf, Vern Byrd, of Spokanes Byrd Real Estate Group, now is listing the Phranil property for sale or lease. Byrd says it includes a 48,000-square-foot industrial building on a 68,000-square-foot site. The building includes 45,000 square feet of main floor space, plus offices on a couple of mezzanine levels.