Red Lobster in Ontario court to discuss U.S. bankruptcy case, Canadian assets: docs

A lawyer for Red Lobster Canada, Inc. says he will ask an Ontario court today to recognize and enforce the chain’s U.S. bankruptcy protection proceedings.

A lawyer for Red Lobster Canada, Inc. says he will ask an Ontario court today to recognize and enforce the chain’s U.S. bankruptcy protection proceedings, a process which documents show could include selling Canadian assets.

Linc Rogers told The Canadian Press in an email that he would make an application to the Ontario Superior Court of Justice on behalf of the beleaguered seafood restaurant chain’s Canadian operations Tuesday. He declined to comment further on Red Lobster’s future in Canada.

However, a May 20 affidavit filed with the court from the chief executive of Red Lobster Management LLC says the goal of the U.S. proceedings is to orchestrate a sale of most or all of the company’s assets, including those owned by Red Lobster Canada.

“With a looming liquidity crisis and no meaningful ability to raise fresh capital, the RL Group’s board of directors … determined that a value-maximizing sale would be the best possible alternative,” the filing from Jonathan Tibus says.

Red Lobster, which expanded to Canada in 1983, has 2,000 Canadian employees, who are mostly part-time, non-unionized and working at the chain’s 27 locations across Ontario, Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

The company leases 26 properties in the country and owns two others in Ontario, including a Brantford restaurant site and an Etobicoke location on The Queensway, where it owns a building but not the land.

The Canadian operations made up about 4.7 per cent of the overall company’s consolidated revenue last year.

Details of the chain’s Canadian footprint and performance are part of a filing made last week that convinced an Ontario court to grant the company a stay in proceedings, which prevents creditors from taking action against it.