Biggest Canadian Corporate Bankruptcies

Biggest Canadian Corporate BankruptciesBiggest Canadian Corporate Bankruptcies.

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It might help some people to put their own insolvencies into a different context by examining some of the largest corporate Canadian bankruptcies in history.  Some of these companies survived and are still operating.

Biggest Canadian Corporate Bankruptcies:

NAME DATE OF INSOLV. TOTAL DEBT # EMPLOYEES
Toys “R” Us Sept, 2017    
Target Stores Jan, 2015 $2.4 Billion 17,600
Sears Canada Jun, 2017 11,240
Stelco 2007   2,000
Nortel 2009 94,500
Eatons 1999 70,000
Air Canada 2003 42,000
Resolute Forest 2009   7,700
Olympia & York 1990
Steinberg’s 1992
Canwest 2009 12,072

 

There is an important message here.  Even if you’re the smartest guy in the room, you’re never too big or too smart to fail!  Many companies are very successful only to have some tragedy over take them.

Nortel was one of the Biggest Canadian Corporate Bankruptcies in history.  Nortel was founded in Montreal, Quebec in 1895 as the Northern Electric and Manufacturing Company. At its height, Nortel accounted for more than a third of the total valuation of all the companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX), employing 94,500 people worldwide.

Sales of optical equipment had been robust in the late 1990s, but the market was soon saturated. When the speculative telecom bubble of the late 1990s reached its pinnacle late in the year 2000, Nortel was to become one of the most spectacular casualties.

Biggest Canadian Corporate Bankruptcies
Photo Caption – Companies at risk to fail

Eatons was founded in 1869 in Toronto.  Eaton’s pioneered several retail innovations. In an era when haggling for goods was the norm, the chain proclaimed “We propose to sell our goods for CASH ONLY – In selling goods, to have only one price.” in addition, it had the long-standing slogan “Goods Satisfactory or Money Refunded.”

A changing economic and retail environment in the late 20th century, along with mismanagement, culminated in the chain’s joining the ranks of  the biggest Canadian corporate bankruptcies in 1999.

Target Canada opened its first store in March 2013, and was operating 133 locations by January 2015.  Target Canada was ultimately unsuccessful, with an overly-aggressive expansion initiative, in addition to higher prices and a limited selection of products compared to Target stores in the United States. Target Canada filed for bankruptcy in January 2015, and closed all of its stores by April 12, 2015.

Sears Canada, in 2016 had a network that included 140 corporate stores.  In September 2017, Sears Canada announced the closing of 10 additional stores, in addition to the 59 store closings previously announced in June.

Toys “R” Us is the latest brick-and-mortar retailer to struggle amid growing competition from online merchants and changing consumer preferences, with Sears Canada filing for CCAA protection this past June.  If Toys “R” Us had offered a better online offering “perhaps they could have avoided such fate,” said Ryerson University business professor Seung Hwan Lee.

You can use our Business Bankruptcy Predictor to evaluate the strength of any companies, that have produced financial statements.

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