Unable to repay about $21 million in debt, a Canadian plant-based food and ingredients company is being forced into receivership.
An application to appoint a receiver for Global Food and Ingredients Ltd. (GFI) is anticipated to be heard Thursday, May 23 at the Superior Court of Justice in Toronto, Ontario.
GFI buys peas, beans, lentils, chickpeas and other high protein specialty crops directly from farmers, processes products at its four wholly-owned processing facilities in Western Canada and ships to 37 countries across the world.
It is organized into four primary business lines: core ingredients, value-added ingredients, downstream products and the Bowden-based plant-based pet food ingredients.
As of May 16, 2024, Global Food and Ingredients Inc. is no longer licensed by the Canadian Grain Commission.
"The company’s grain dealer licence, 3 primary elevator licences and 2 process elevator licences have been revoked," the Canadian Grain Commission said. "If this company owes you money for grain deliveries, contact our Safeguards for Grain Farmers Program immediately. If you do business with this company on or after May 16, 2024, you will not be protected by security under the Canada Grain Act."
GFI announced plans on May 7 to start an orderly wind-down of business operations after being unable to service its debts and continue operations.
The company said it has been unable to purchase adequate supplies of raw material to process, “which has resulted, and is expected to continue to result in a material decline in the company’s sales and gross profit until new raw material supply becomes available from the fall 2024 Canadian harvest.”
A day later, the company announced it had received letters from both senior secured lenders of a GFI subsidiary demanding full payment of $14,987,992 and $6,844,973.
“GFI has been placed in an untenable financial situation and is unable to obtain creditor protection,” the company said.
Soumya Sanyal, the company's general counsel said GFI's former facility in Bowden, now owned by Big Sky Milling, is not affected by the receivership but that subsidiaries including Global Foods Inc. and North Lilly are.
Editor's note: This article has been updated to correct the fact that the Bowden pet food ingredients facility is unaffected by the the receivership.
