The future of C&C Wood Products, a specialty mill in Quesnel, should be known soon.
Mayor Bob Simpson provided an update on the information that he has been given at Tuesday (July 7) night’s City Council meeting…
“Today at 4-30 the bid process closed for C&C Wood Products.  So that was a one week delay for those who wanted to put a bid in with intention to operate.  PricewaterhouseCoopers, the trustee, will now make a determination based on the liquidator bids which were in 10 days ago and then the operator bids.”
Simpson wasn’t sure how many bids there were…
“It is my understanding that there will be a couple of operator bids, if not a couple more, as they did get serious towards the end.  I have been back and fourth with a number of these folks and with PriceWaterhouseCoopers.”
Simpson says PricewaterhouseCoopers, the trustee, will now take Wednesday and Thursday to review the bids.
He says the municipality and even the provincial government doesn’t have a lot to do with this process, but he says they have been doing what they can…
“It’s just a legal trusteeship process with a company putting it into bankruptcy.  We’ve been working on the periphery very hard to see if we can get some very serious people to take a look at running the mill and putting in a bid with PriceWaterhouseCoopers with the intention to operate the mill, so that is the work we’ve done.  I haven’t spent any time with liquidators, I’m not interested in the mill being liquidated.”
Simpson says the extension for bids was done to give those who intend to operate more time…
“It’s a lot more difficult to try and figure out the business case, what your stock is, what your ability is to get back into the market, where your employees are.  All of those things are more complicated to put an informed bid into the trustee, than if you just go in there and say the copper is going to get me about this, and the steel is going to get me about this, and the rolling stock of the logging company will get me about this.”
C&C Wood Products filed for bankruptcy back on June 2nd after halting operations on May 29th.
The closure of the mill and the logging operation that it runs has left approximately 200 employees in limbo.
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