Faced with a struggling economy and health and pension benefits issues, Standard Forwarding Company filed for bankruptcy last week, but with a buyer ready to step in.

The East Moline trucking company filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy Friday, but is able to be sold under Section 363 of the bankruptcy code. Company president John Ward declined to identify the buyer, but said it wants the company to continue operating. He expects the process to be completed by late December or early January.

“We knew that sometime in 2010 we would be forced out of business,” Ward said Monday. “We tried everything to avoid this process. The bottom line is we want to fix this and continue as a going concern.”

Employee levels aren’t expected to change with the sale, Ward said, but the future of employee pensions is uncertain. The new owner will be faced with negotiating collective bargaining agreements and is looking at whether to assume certain employee obligations, Ward said. The company employees 460, with 120 working at its East Moline hub.

“For the sale to go through, the buyer isn’t going to take on that debt,” Ward said.

Obligations of collective bargaining agreements will be handled as a claim in bankruptcy. Teamsters Local 371 could not be reached for comment Monday.

The company pays into a multi-employer pension plan that requires continuing companies to be responsible for covering pensions of retirees from companies that paid into the plan but have since failed.

That has turned the ratio of workers to pensioners upside down, from 4-to-1 employees to retirees in the 1970s to 1-to-4 employees to retirees so that Standard Forwarding is paying $7.80 per hour for pension contribution, Ward said. Though he called it a factor in the bankruptcy, he said it was among a number of issues that contributed to Friday’s action.

“We have out-of-control costs that need to be brought under control,” he said, explaining that bankruptcy was the best way to do it. “With our costs under control, we will be in a good position.”

Working with an investment banking firm, Standard Forwarding began looking for buyer about six months ago. The company began informing clients of its impending bankruptcy about four weeks ago and employees were told about two weeks ago, Ward said.