PlyMart, a 40-year-old Norcross-based wood supply company, has gone into receivership as it struggles to stay afloat in order to liquidate and sell off two of its divisions.

PlyMart's business, which sold lumber and other wood products to builders, has suffered because of the decline in new housing starts.

Receivers, similar to bankruptcy trustees, take full control of a company and act as managers to preserve value for creditors, according to Scott Riddle, an Atlanta bankruptcy and litigation attorney, who is not involved with this case. Receivers also have the authority to take a company into bankruptcy if needed, he said, although that has not been determined in the PlyMart case.

In this case, Bank of America filed a complaint Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia against PlyMart and a related real estate company for the unpaid portion of a $71 million loan.

The federal judge has appointed Lee N. Katz as the liquidation manager for the case, in which PlyMart still owes about $26 million in loans for real estate and assets. Katz is a managing partner of the turnaround firm Grisanti, Galef & Goldress. Katz already has been privy to sale negotiations, according to the court documents.

Ken Southerland, PlyMart's president and CEO, said that the company has one solid offer for its specialty and custom stair divisions, with several in the wings if the first doesn't go through. Those divisions operate in Georgia, as well as Greer, S.C., and Charlotte, N.C.

In the meantime, two Georgia PlyMart lumber locations are still operating through the liquidation process: 2009 Dorsey Road in Marietta and 1159 Hog Mountain Road in Winder. The stair and special order division is still operating as well, and the Web site is still functional.

Southerland said that the company — which at its peak employed about 1,150 with $360 million in sales — now employs about 300.

Said Southerland: "We appreciate customers' loyalty and working with us in these difficult times. We need them as we try to maintain those jobs and businesses."