SmileDirectClub's assets, products worth millions up for sale

Assets, including a 125,000-sq-foot production facility in Tennessee, as well as millions of dollars' worth of inventory once owned by SmileDirectClub, the clear aligner company that abruptly closed in December after a failed pitch to save it, is up for auction.

Liquidation firm Gordon Brothers is accepting offers through April 1 for the property in Antioch, TN, as well as clear aligner production lines and 3D printers on behalf of the debtor-in-possession lender, according to the company's website.

In addition to $1.9 million in spare parts and $10 million in dental supply inventory being available for sale, the following are up for auction:

• Seven Gen2 automated FlexLink clear aligner production lines (2019-2020)
• One Gen2 automated FlexLink retainer line (2019)
• Nine Gen1 clear aligner production lines (2017-2019)
• Two Eclipse Automation arch robotic sorting cells (2019)
• 675 iTero Element oral scanners
• A research and development and 3D printing laboratory
• Hewlett-Packard 3D printers

Also, SmileDirectClub's intellectual property is available from other parties. Those interested should contact Gordon Brothers.

On December 8, 2023, just days after a last-ditch proposal was made to save SmileDirectClub from liquidation, the clear aligner company shuttered its operations worldwide, immediately ceasing any future sale of its products and ending its lifetime guarantee.

In September 2023, SmileDirectClub's business problems began to heat up when it filed for voluntary protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas. In that September 29 filing, SmileDirectClub had nearly $900 million in debt.

After no new buyers came forward to rescue the company, SmileDirectClub founders Jordan Katzman and Alex Fenkell in early December 2023 offered to infuse new cash into the business and take it over, to save it from liquidation.

The pair proposed offering $30 million of debt to SmileDirectClub, as well as adding $25 million of new equity into the company, in exchange for the founders receiving 100% of the reorganized firm. The $30 million would be in addition to the $20 million that the founders lent to pay for the company to search for a new buyer. However, these efforts failed, forcing the company to cease operations. 

But the trouble didn't end with the business's closure. In January 2024, one of the approximately 1,000 workers who lost their jobs when SmileDirectClub shuttered its business in December 2023 filed a proposed class action lawsuit claiming that the telehealth orthodontics company failed to provide the required advance notice of their layoffs.