Struggling under a mountain of debt and...

Struggling under a mountain of debt and slowing sales in a major market, Burke Industries Inc., a Santa Fe Springs maker of rubber products, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

The company has liabilities of about $166 million compared with assets of about $100 million, according to Burke officials.

Chief Executive Ted Clark said the company’s Burke Mercer division, which makes rubber safety flooring and other flooring products, has been hammered by a national slowdown in commercial construction. He said rising costs for energy and workers’ compensation in California, as well as a jump in the price of raw materials, forced the Chapter 11 filing.

Clark said the company was purchased in a leveraged transaction in 1997 by New York investment company J.F. Lehman & Co. He said the company intends to restructure its debt and emerge as a going concern.

Burke Industries employs about 1,000 people nationwide, about three-quarters of them in California. Its other major division is Burke Engineered Polymers, which makes seals for the automotive and trucking industries.

The company posted a net loss of $6.4 million in 1999 on revenue of $107 million. The company has since told the Securities and Exchange Commission that it must restate its financials for both 1999 and 2000 because of some problems accounting for inventory.