Freight firm shutters HQ

LAKEWOOD RANCH — Integrated Freight Corp. has shut down its Lakewood Ranch headquarters, part of a restructuring that jeopardizes the firm's future.

The company, a national trucking firm, also announced CEO and board chairman Paul Henley resigned, along with two other board members. The office closure and resignations were reported in Securities and Exchange Commission filings.

“We have surrendered possession of our computer servers and peripheral equipment to our vendor,” the company's SEC filing stated. “We have substantial unpaid obligations.” The statement adds: “We are seeking additional funding from our existing creditors, with which to pay for and continue our operations.”

The firm, in the SEC filings, blames the bulk of the problems on its late 2010 acquisition of Medford, Ore.-based Cross Creek Trucking Inc. Federal safety regulators shut down Cross Creek last year, and the assets Integrated bought have since been foreclosed on, the firm said in the SEC filings.

Henley founded Integrated Freight in 2008. The idea was to build a firm made up of small and mid-size independent trucking companies to compete with bigger entities in the industry. The firm reported $18.8 million in revenues for its 2011 fiscal year, against $7.7 million in losses.