In 2022, Maryland-based Enviva was riding high. For the second year in a row, revenue topped $1 billion, up 24% from two years prior. In April of that year, stocks hit a peak of $87 per share, and multiyear contracts were signed with customers across the European Union, United Kingdom, Japan and South Korea.

Enviva, the world's largest bioenergy firm in the world, dominated the global market for wood pellets used by the energy industry.

The future looked bright -- Enviva predicted it would double wood pellet output, from 6.2 million metric tons shipped overseas in 2022, to 13 million metric tons by 2027. It planned to grow its number of plants from 10 to 12 with its biggest plants yet in Alabama and Mississippi, which have been under construction.

It all looked so rosy. But that proverbial bloom is now off that rose. This week, stock prices for the nation’s largest exporter of wood pellets closed at 45 cents a share.

The company announced a comprehensive review of its capital structure to improve the company’s financial position, and announced a realignment of leadership, which saw Thomas Meth stripped of his CEO title and the appointment of Glenn Nunziata to that role on an interim basis. Less than three months earlier, Munziata had been hired as Chief Financial Officer.

Last month, on Jan. 29, Enviva announced it had received a delisting notification from the New York Stock Exchange. The company was no longer in compliance with NYSE continued listing criteria that requires listed companies to maintain an average closing share price of at least $1.00 over a consecutive 30-trading-day period. That 30-day grace period is fast approaching.

The Company can regain compliance at any time within the six-month cure period following receipt of the Notice if, on the last trading day of any calendar month during such cure period, the Company has both a closing share price of at least $1.00 and an average closing share price of at least $1.00 over the 30-trading-day period ending on the last trading day of the applicable calendar month.

January continued a downward spiral. After reporting a net loss of $85.2 million for third-quarter 2023, and analysts projecting further loses for the fourth quarter, the company missed a $24.4 million bond payment last month, helping drive its stock price to new lows.

On Tuesday, Feb. 13, the Wall Street Journal -- once a champion of Enviva -- reported that the company is preparing to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Company officials have said a series of factors have combined to chop down the company even as it sells more wood pellets than ever to customers in the United Kingdom, continental Europe, and Japan.

These factors, according to Timber Industry News, include collapsing prices for wood pellets, long-term contracts that lock Enviva into deals with customers at low prices, high-interest rates that makes its loans more expensive to service, and operational issues at some of its plants.

The company has also been battered by critics who say that contrary to the company's pronouncements that its pellets are made from "waste wood," the company is purchasing whole trees that are a lot more expensive than junk wood.

For instance, in a Dec. 5, 2022, Mongabay story an Enviva whistleblower accused Enviva of falsifying its green claims and not being truthful about where and how it sourced forest wood for the tons of pellets it makes every day in the U.S. for export.

“The company says that we use mostly waste like branches, treetops and debris to make pellets,” the whistleblower told Mongabay. “What a joke. We use 100% whole trees in our pellets. We hardly use any waste. Pellet density is critical. You get that from whole trees, not junk.”