Vector Graphic Plans Chapter 7 Liquidation

Vector Graphic, a pioneer in the personal computer business, said Monday that it will liquidate under Chapter 7 of the U. S. Bankruptcy Code.

The decision comes a year after the Westlake Village-based company stopped making computer equipment and nearly 14 months after it filed a petition under Chapter 11 of the bankruptcy code, which permits a company to reorganize while keeping creditors at bay.

Vector Graphic said no money is available to be distributed to unsecured creditors or stockholders. The company said it has assets worth no more than $275,000 for distribution to secured creditors, about $1.5 million short of what the secured creditors are owed. About $770,000 in cash has already been distributed to secured creditors, the company said.

At its peak, Vector Graphic earned $2.4 million in its 1982 fiscal year, on $36.2 million in sales, and employed 425 at its Thousand Oaks plant. But the computer industry slump, competition from International Business Machines and management miscues changed Vector Graphic’s fortunes.

The company was founded in 1976 by Robert and Lore Harp in their Westlake Village home with a $6,000 investment. The couple later divorced and, in 1982, Robert Harp left the company to start Corona Data Systems, a Thousand Oaks maker of IBM-compatible personal computers now called Cordata. Lore Harp continued to run Vector Graphic and became one of the industry’s most visible chief executives before leaving the company at the end of 1983.