American LaFrance pulled itself out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy on May 23 when Delaware U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Brendan Linehan Shannon confirmed the company’s reorganization plan.

Within hours of the judge’s order, the company issued a statement quoting Lynn Tilton, the chief executive officer of Patriarch Partners LLC, a private equity and investment firm that owns American LaFrance and is its secured lender.

 “This is just another milestone in the long history of this epic 175-year-old manufacturing company,” Tilton said. “Having obtained an extension of $40 million of new credit in connection with its exit from bankruptcy, ALF is in a strong financial position to well service its customers.”

The company’s fate was in the hands of its unsecured creditors, who were owed more than $80 million, and in April they voted overwhelmingly to accept American LaFrance’s proposed plan of reorganization, which pays those who are owed the most money just 22.5 cents on a dollar.

The unsecured creditors, most of them suppliers, are expected to get their money in a few months.

Some of the unsecured creditors are fire departments with unfilled contracts for new apparatus, and most are expected to receive the full value of their claims, according to David Fournier, a Delaware lawyer who represented the Committee of Unsecured Creditors in the bankruptcy case.

He said he was not sure of the exact number of fire departments involved in the case, but estimated it was around 50. Court filings showed some fire departments had penalty clauses in their contracts or reduction-in-price provisions if their trucks were not delivered on time.

Fournier said lawyers representing American LaFrance told the judge during the May 23 confirmation hearing that the company was trying to renegotiate contracts with those fire departments so it could build the trucks without losing money on them.

American LaFrance’s financial problems became evident in December 2007 when many of its employees were furloughed. On Jan. 28 the company sought protection from its creditors by filing for Chapter 11 protection in Delaware, where it is incorporated.

While in bankruptcy, company executives said they closed or vacated six of 10 facilities, reduced overhead by 50 percent and cut in half the hours needed to produce most trucks. Furloughed employees returned to work at the end of March.

 Providing evidence that it is back in production, American LaFrance posted a video message, dated May 9, on its Web site narrated by Michael Gordon, the company’s director of sales, marketing and customer support for fire who said he wanted to show “the real story of what’s happening today here at American LaFrance.”

The video opens with an aerial view of the company’s 500,000-square-foot Summerville, S.C., plant and shows employees working on trucks in various stages of production. Using many of the same assurances the company used in statements it issued while in bankruptcy, Gordon talked about instituting lean manufacturing techniques and dramatically increasing output. “By this summer,” he said, “we expect to be producing over 150 trucks a month with 20 to 30 being fire trucks.”

With the parts distribution center as a backdrop in the video, Gordon said the company has streamlined its order entry system. “What that means is a higher degree of likelihood that we’re going to have the parts that you need to get the trucks back up in service quickly,” he said. “We’re striving to meet urgent orders on the same day received, to fill emergency orders within 24 hours and standard orders within 36 hours of receipt for all in-stock parts.”

He said the company is setting up a remote parts distribution center at its Los Angeles facility to expedite shipments on the West Coast.

Then he declared that the company soon will announce “exciting new products and enhancements to our current line that will truly set American LaFrance apart from the competition.”