Poissons Frais des Îles has won the bid, acquiring the company following the liquidation of the assets of fish processing company LA Renaissance des Îles (LRDI), which went bankrupt last year, agency QMI has learned.
Its owner, Christian Vigneau, offered more than $6.6 million to Farm Credit Canada (FCC), the only secured creditor on the filing. The 47-year-old entrepreneur was delighted to hear the news on Friday evening, just over 24 hours after the end of the offer period.
“It’s a big surprise, with a day of excitement, with four months of excitement, we can say. Since last fall we’ve watched it progress and we didn’t really know what was going to happen with it. And we’ve been doing a lot, a lot of work in that direction lately. The result makes us very happy!” he enthused.
Bankruptcy trustee José Roberge of the company Roy Métivier Roberge, representative of FCC, said that he had received more than 30 bids, including only three bulk bids for all lots, consisting mainly of two plants for processing crab and lobster, and a holding tank with a capacity of 600,000 lbs.
The other two companies that have bid for LRDI’s assets are Cooperative des Pêcheurs des Îles-de-la-Madeleine, re-established from former fishermen from the bankrupt company, and Iceto Inc. owned by Alain Lord munir. The latter is also the owner of Apéri-Fruits Compton, until then one of LRDI’s main customers.
“The offer from the fishermen’s cooperative was much lower than the one selected,” Mr Roberge said. Technically, Iceto’s bid was superior, but after analysis, FAC considered that the best bid was that of Poissons Frais des Îles as it had no conditions outside the tender.
At their peak last year, LRDI’s two processing plants employed 300 people, including 130 temporary foreign workers. According to Josée Roberge, everything is being done to allow Poissons Frais des Îles to resume operations in time for the next fishing season, with the shrimp season due to start in the first days of April.
“We will quickly request a meeting with the workers to be able to work with all these wonderful people,” said Christian Vigneau. For us, the acquisition of the two factories is very important to be able to transform our products and add value to them. Only one live product could be produced, Poissons Frais des Îles. And with the facilities at LA Renaissance des Îles, I think the local team has done some great things over the past few years and we will try to continue in the same direction.”