As a debtor, Instant Brands is emblematic of the financial distress that permeates the retail sector. The maker of the Instant Pot filed for Chapter 11 on Monday after initially benefiting from the rise of consumer spending during the pandemic, but ultimately succumbing to supply-chain issues, inflation, high interest rates and shortened payment terms from suppliers and vendors, chief restructuring officer Adam Hollerbach of AlixPartners declared in a court filing.

But the company's private equity sponsor, Cornell Capital, is just as indicative of the increasing willingness of sponsors and lenders to use bankruptcy as a tool to cleanse their balance sheets.