Le Panier Bleu has been on life support since Quebec announced his impending death on Tuesday. The company's shareholders – Investissement Québec, Desjardins and Fonds FTQ – remain deafeningly silent and refuse to divulge the rest.
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“We will make a decision [sur notre avenir] in the coming weeks,” explained Le Panier Bleu on Tuesday simply through an agency in view of the bombshell dropped by Pierre Fitzgibbon.
The Minister of Economic Affairs had just announced the death of the Panier Bleu live on national radio. The transaction side is “completed” and a decision on its future “will be made in the coming days,” he said.
All of Quebec has understood that the carrots are cooked and that the company's 25 employees need to think about their future. Furthermore, it is impossible to say whether they were warned of their fate, as the leaders of the Blue Basket have gone into hiding.
Investissement Québec, which paid $12 million for less than 30% of the deal in September 2022, did not even respond to the Journal on Tuesday.
In the Ministry of Economy we are told that discussions with the Panier Bleu leaders are confidential. It is said that the fate of the 25 employees is not in the hands of the state.
For Desjardins, which invested $4 million in the Blue Basket in 2022, it is “premature” to comment on the situation. At the FTQ Fund, which has invested $5 million, we are told the same refrain as elsewhere.
Ah, Amazon, how beautiful you are
The oft-derided, rarely used Panier Bleu should be the place where all Quebec SMEs sell their products online without going through Amazon.
As such, the project was presented by Pierre Fitzgibbon himself in April 2020. Four million dollars in subsidies later, the failure has been bitter and the site has been “privatized”, although the Minister's shadow still looms large.
François Legault's star player even said on Tuesday that Amazon is a “very good platform that a lot of Quebec companies want to be on.”
The irony of this praise for the world's No. 1 online retailer was not lost on the Liberal business spokesman in Quebec.
“It was already a good platform in 2020. They're throwing money out the window on patents that they know full well they won't be able to handle,” said Frédéric Beauchemin in an interview with Newspaper about the Blue Basket.
This is the same Pierre Fitzgibbon, adds the Liberal, who, just a few months after the birth of the Blue Basket, made increased efforts to bring Quebec SMEs closer to Amazon.
Need'Money
The minister's deadly comment on Tuesday came hours after the announcement of the partnership between Les Produits du Québec and Amazon.
The NPO's “made in Quebec” certification allows its members to shine on the world's largest online retailer, thanks to its distinctive logo, now visible on the website. Les Produits du Québec even have their own page.
Amazon rolled out the red carpet for around thirty guests in Montreal on Monday as it announced its partnership with Les Produits du Québec. Photo Julien Mcevoy
When the partnership was announced on Monday, the question arose as to whether it was an admission of weakness by Panier Bleu. Without saying so, Pierre Fitzgibbon answered “yes” on Tuesday morning.
The rest will probably be difficult. All our sources confirm that Panier Bleu has already exhausted its $22 million from September 2022 and needs new liquidity to survive.
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