MPH Graphics of Markham is working through Canada’s Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act to restructure the company, which President Stephen Pugh indicates will ultimately end with a sale through a stalking horse offer bid process.
As part of the court-led process, a notice about MPH Graphics’ restructuring and subsequent asset sale was placed in the national edition of today’s Report on Business section of The Globe and Mail newspaper. On January 6, an Ontario court appointed Ira Smith Trustee & Receiver Inc. to look after the stalking horse sales process of MPH Graphics’ assets.
“We are restructuring… it is a process whereby the business is going to be sold and we have an offer and there will be a sale,” says Pugh, “but the system has to allow for giving others an opportunity.”
MPH Graphics, founded in 1988, operates in a niche marke and is a unionized facility.
“There are things that we can bring to an organization in terms of our digital and wide format… our client base has value,” says Pugh. “One niche would be the environmental sector and people may want to take advantage of our leadership in terms of our sustainable approach to print.”
The stalking horse process could take a few weeks, likely lasting into February, before MPH”s future is secured. For now, however, it is business as usual for Pugh and around 20 employees with the Markham company.
“We are here until this process is done. There is no trustee in here. I am running the business and we have the support of our banks,” says Pugh, noting the restructuring of the company was not initiated by the bank. “At the end of the day, this is about the sale process and maintaining the relationships with clients that I have developed over the years and maintaining jobs.”
Print this page
