TreeSweet Cos. filed for bankruptcy, citng debts...

TreeSweet Cos. filed for bankruptcy, citng debts of about $85 million. Los Angeles-based Early Industries is negotiating to buy assets of the four TreeSweet companies for $27.7 million, about $20 million of which will be cash. Early Industries’ purchase of Houston-based TreeSweet should mean no further layoffs at TreSweet’s three offices: a Santa Ana processing and packaging plant that employs about 99 people, a smaller plant in Winterhaven, Fla., and the corporate headquarters in Houston, said Scott MacDonald, TreeSweet’s chief financial officer.