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A bank’s abrupt change of heart on a bond refinancing proposal is squeezing Kellwood Co., the Town and Country-based maker of Phat Farm, Sag Harbor and other clothing brands, a company executive said Friday.

Eric Hunter, Kellwood’s senior vice president of marketing, said Deutsche Bank had indicated it would agree to the refinancing plan until this week. He would not confirm a story in the Wall Street Journal, which reported Friday that an inability to reach agreement with Deutsche Bank could force Kellwood to seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

"We’re still looking at all the options," Hunter said.

Kellwood was a publicly traded company until February 2008, when it was purchased for $542 million by Sun Capital Partners and taken private. It employs about 2,000 people, including about 175 executives and other workers in St. Louis. Kellwood has about $500 million in total debt and $800 million in annual sales, the Journal said.

The company has a $140 million bond issue maturing Wednesday, the Journal reported. Hunter would not confirm the amount. Tight credit markets had prompted Kellwood to try to defer bond payment by exchanging the bonds for what the Journal said were ones maturing in 2014 with better terms.

Hunter said Kellwood believed all the bondholders had agreed to the plan until Deutsche Bank, the largest bondholder, announced "a complete 180-degree switch" this week.

"It’s frustrating and to a certain degree it (makes us) angry because they could have told us this six weeks ago," said Hunter, adding that the bank’s new position could be a negotiating tactic business card design.

A Deutsche Bank spokesman was unavailable for comment. A Sun Capital spokesman declined to comment.

Talks to reach a deal by the midnight Wednesday deadline will continue, Hunter said. Months of declines in consumer spending and high debt are hurting nearly all retailers, he added. "We’re all living in the economic climate."

Once primarily known for Sag Harbor and other moderately priced labels, Kellwood has been restructuring to cut costs and build its higher-priced clothing business. Sun Capital said at the time of the acquisition that it aimed to strengthen Kellwood.

In November, Kellwood raised cash by selling its Gerber Childrenswear and Hanna Andersson businesses to an affiliate of Sun Capital for $179 million. Kellwood said it would use about $145 million from the sale to pay down debt.

Sun Capital is a private equity fund based in Boca Raton, Fla. Several of its approximately 85 portfolio companies have filed for bankruptcy since January 2008.

Most of the filings have been by retailers, including Lillian Vernon Corp., Sharper Image Corp., Mervyn’s LLC and Wickes Furniture Co. Lillian Vernon was liquidated and sold to rival catalog Current USA.

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