PwC sent the information to creditors ahead of a Nov. 13 meeting, the first such creditors meeting held since Merit officially filed for bankruptcy on Oct. 23, 2025. PwC was appointed trustee the same day that filing was made.

WHY IT MATTERS: The Prairie plant protein space was rocked in 2023 with news that Winnipeg-based Merit Functional Foods had hit a financial wall.

Merit had been under court-ordered receivership since March 1, 2023, following a February filing from Export Development Canada (EDC) and Farm Credit Canada (FCC). At that time, the two, both secured lenders in the proceedings, said they were owed $58.5 million and $36.5 million respectively, based on debt financing they had provided for the company in 2020.

Merit had opened in early 2021 with major financial backing from Export Development Canada, Farm Credit Canada, CIBC and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, as well as an interest-free $10-million AgriInnovate loan. Shareholders included Burcon NutraScience, Bunge, and a group of former Hemp Oil Canada executives.

PwC, also the appointed trustee for the recievership, has since sold off all the company’s remaining finished and raw inventory and collected most of its accounts receivable. That money was used to pay off Merit’s main operating lender, CIBC, which was owed about $5 million at the start of the process.

Inventory sales brought in about $3.3 million, and PwC recovered roughly $571,000 in receivables, though a small portion couldn’t be collected, according to documents posted on the case by PwC. CIBC had first claim on this money, and other secured lenders agreed to let PwC use the proceeds to clear that debt so it would stop accumulating interest.

Money owed to EDC and FCC, as Merit’s other secured lenders, are listed later in the recent bankruptcy filings.

The company’s Winnipeg plant still remains a question. Court documents from earlier this year showed that PwC had a line on a Manitoba numbered company as a buyer and had requested court approval for the sale. As of the latest filings, no deal had been finalized.

The receiver filed a detailed update with the court, but a judge ordered that part of the report sealed, noting that releasing it during the sale process could hurt the chances of getting the best price. PwC has said the information will be made public once a sale is complete.

Bankruptcy documents

With bulk assets sold during receivership and that money directed to secured lenders, the bankruptcy statement of affairs now contains only the leftover debt. PwC lists $102,398,560 in unsecured claims and $1 in cash remaining.

The unsecured trade creditor list includes more than 200 businesses and organizations. Among the largest amounts are $548,799.98 owed to the RM of Rosser, $331,136.82 owed to Manitoba Hydro, and $188,462.40 owed to Manitoba Hydro International.

Merit’s own filing says rising operating costs, competition, and product issues all played a role in its financial woes.

No farmers, however, have been left unpaid.

The Canadian Grain Commission audited Merit twice in 2023. First in March, then again when the company’s grain dealer licence was not renewed July 1. Both audits confirmed the company had “no outstanding producer liabilities.”

By July, Merit was barred from taking in grain or creating any new obligations to farmers. Producers who still had contracts on paper at the time of receivership received direct notice from PwC with next steps.

Disclosure: Glacier FarmMedia, the parent company of this publication, is listed as an unsecured trade creditor in the bankruptcy filings with a claim of $1,785.

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In court documents, receiver PricewaterhouseCoopers said that as of April 29 it had entered an asset sale purchase agreement with a Manitoba numbered company. It has requested court approval for the sale of the plant and property.

The receiver asked the court to seal documents related to the value of the agreement until the sale was closed.

Merit Functional Foods Corp was a joint venture between Vancouver plant-based protein firm Burcon NutraScience, agri-food giant Bunge and former executives of Hemp Oil Canada.

It ran into financial trouble in 2022 and entered receivership in early 2023. At the time the company owed about $58.5 million to Export Development Canada and about $36.5 million to Farm Credit Canada.

Burcon NutraScience in April 2023 said it and an unnamed partner had put in a bid for the Winnipeg plant and hoped to restart operations.

Court documents show the receiver got an offer on the site in the summer of 2023 but wasn’t able to reach a purchase agreement.

“Several discussions and negotiations took place between the Receiver and other interested parties; however, none resulted in a successful transaction,” the documents say.

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He delivered the grain before both companies declared bankruptcy, leaving him short C$165,000 they owed. Now Prybylski has no money to replace his old tractor.

Hundreds of Canadian farmers have received delayed payments for their crops or not been paid at all, as a growing number of grain-buying firms declare bankruptcy amid drought and low commodity prices, according to interviews with dozens of farmers, a government agency, and a review of bankruptcy documents.

Farmers are discovering they are not necessarily protected from the failures, revealing holes in Canada’s farm safety net.

The bankruptcies are adding to farmer troubles in Canada, the world’s top canola and No. 3 wheat producer, while they also brace for tariffs from the United States.

Prybylski, who farms in Willowbrook, Saskatchewan, is relying on a line of credit to cover the shortfall until he harvests the next crop in autumn.

“Where do we cut our expenses? Or how do we get more revenues to do the things we need to do?” Prybylski asked. As planting season approaches, he needs to buy fertilizer, seed and fuel.

Farmers can sell crops to companies that operate storage terminals, merchants and other farmers who fatten livestock. They are generally paid a few weeks after they deliver grain and have long incurred most of their costs, a problem for those who deliver to a buyer that goes broke before paying.

Canadian farmers have some financial protection through the federal government-run Canadian Grain Commission, which regulates crop transactions, oversees grain company failures and at times covers some of what farmers are owed by failed companies. The CGC pays compensation from bonds and other security that licensed companies are required to post.

The CGC managed four company failures in 2024, compared to zero or one most years, and the most since at least 2001, according to government data.

But some unlicensed companies have also failed, suggesting the troubles may be broader.

Farmer Christi Friesen said grain buyer Agfinity tried to delay paying her for three loads of peas, though it ultimately paid the C$75,000 it owed plus interest.

Agfinity declared bankruptcy on November 25.

“I needed to fight,” said Friesen, who farms 5,000 acres (2,023 hectares) of cropland in Alberta’s Peace region. “I kept being a pain in the ass.”

Discovering that some failing companies, such as Agfinity, are unlicensed, has alarmed farmers, as has finding out that some licensed companies are not fully insured.

The situation “has fully exposed that we are not secure,” said southern Saskatchewan farmer Cherilyn Jolly-Nagel.

Companies directly buying crops from farmers must, by law, be licensed with the CGC, with few exceptions. For legal enforcement, the agency must complain to the Public Prosecution Service of Canada, which then decides whether to take action.

The CGC has not made such a complaint in at least seven years, said spokesperson Christianne Hacault.

Other flaws in farmer protections are the CGC’s requirement that farmers report non-payment within 90 days, and licensed firms who fail to post adequate security, farmers say.

The CGC is holding consultations with farmers about its protection system, Hacault said.

“We know there are gaps.”

The federal agriculture minister’s office, which oversees the CGC, did not respond to a request for comment.

Agfinity owner Joseph Billett told Reuters that reduced sales due to smaller crops, farmers’ reluctance to sell at low prices and competition from imports of U.S. corn to feed cattle pushed the company over the edge.

“These three factors made profitability very challenging, and for us, impossible, these past few years,” Billett said.

Dust bowl

Farmers in the western half of Canada’s Prairies have grown stunted crops for four years due to dry conditions. In some places, farmers say they are facing the worst prolonged drought since the 1930s Dust Bowl.

Crop insurance claims between 2021 and 2024 shot up seven-fold compared to the previous four-year period due to drought-damaged crops, according to agencies in Alberta and Saskatchewan.

Numerous small grain companies, brokers and merchants are among Canadian crop buyers, unlike some countries that are dominated by global players.

In the United States, farmers also had low prices to deal with, but their crops had better growing conditions, allowing them to salvage revenue. Some states regulate grain companies so that farmers have protection against non-payment, but the situation varies state-to-state.

In Canada, some companies have avoided bankruptcy, but are still struggling.

Farmer-built North West Terminal in Unity, Saskatchewan, said in September it would stop buying grain at least through July to avoid losses.

In an interview, NWT CEO Jason Skinner said intense competition to buy reduced crops hit his company, though it has avoided bankruptcy.

“We’ve seen some significant headwinds and . . . margins that aren’t covering costs,” Skinner said.

In May, LSM Grain picked up two truckloads of red lentils, worth about C$50,000, from Saskatchewan farmer Kelly Arthurs, but did not pay him. The CGC revoked LSM’s license in July.

The company could not be reached for comment.

Arthurs complained to the CGC within 90 days of delivering his grain and was eventually compensated.

But 17 farmers owed a combined $842,000 by LSM waited too long and will not qualify for compensation, according to a bankruptcy document and the CGC. Prybylski is one of them.

Global Foods and Ingredients also went broke owing Prybylski money in the spring. He submitted his complaint in time to qualify for coverage, but only received 75 per cent of what he was owed because Global had posted insufficient security.

A law firm representing Global Foods did not respond to a request for comment.

Arthurs said he felt so much stress from months of fighting to get paid that he may quit farming.

“It’s time to retire.”

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The company owes $5.067 million to the 181 creditors listed in bankruptcy filings released Nov. 26. Many of the creditors are farmers who sold grain through Agfinity but were never paid. Employees out their last paycheques are also listed in the filing. Listed assets totalled $162,593.

MNP Ltd. has been appointed as the Licensed Insolvency Trustee. Creditors can contact MNP to complete a proof of claim prior to a meeting of creditors scheduled to take place via teleconference on Dec. 16. The meeting is a formality in the bankruptcy process, with the purpose of affirming the trustee’s appointment, appointing inspectors to the bankrupt estate and providing direction to the trustee.

While Agfinity had once operated as a typical grain broker — matching buyers and sellers through broker notes but never handling any money directly aside from their fee — in recent years the company began using grain purchase contracts where they took the payment from the buyer and paid the seller later. In a July blog post, Agfinity’s president Joseph Billett said the newer contracts were necessary to support cash flow due to narrow margins. However, the company was unable to generate enough trade volumes to match costs.

In a draft letter to be sent to creditors provided by Billett, he acknowledged mistakes made over the past year and offered “sincerest apologies for the pain and stress this situation has caused.”

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Agfinity, the Stony Plain, Alta. grain broker that Kitt sold his canola through, laid off employees and started the process of declaring bankruptcy in mid-October, according to former employees. The Agfinity website has switched to maintenance mode, its social media accounts are shuttered and calls go straight to voicemail.

“We were told (on Oct. 18) that they would be filing for bankruptcy that next Monday (Oct. 21) and that as employees we could expect to hear from a trustee who was going to give us paperwork to fill out to ensure we were paid for our last few weeks of work,” said Coco Dougherty, Agfinity’s former vice president of marketing and communications. However, Dougherty and other former staff contacted for this article had not received their final paycheques as of mid-November and were still waiting to be contacted by the bankruptcy trustee.

The company has not yet officially filed for bankruptcy, but “it should be any day now,” said Agfinity president Joseph Billett via email Nov. 19. In a draft letter to be sent to farmers owed money by the company, Billett acknowledged mistakes made over the past year and offered “sincerest apologies for the pain and stress this situation has caused.”

Kitt was out about $20,000 for his heated canola. Christi Friesen, a northern Alberta grain farmer who has been active on social media connecting farmers and shedding light on Agfinity’s non-payment issues said there are many others in the same position.

Graham Letts bought grain through Agfinity on several occasions over the years for his Westlock, Alta. livestock operation and appreciated the ease of the company’s online system. However, he noticed a change in recent years. While Agfinity had once operated as a typical grain broker — matching buyers and sellers through broker notes but never handling any money directly aside from their fee — the company started using new grain purchase contracts where they took the payment from the buyer and paid the seller at a later date. Letts recounted a situation where he bought grain and paid Agfinity the full amount, only to later hear that the farmer who made the delivery was never paid.

In a July blog post, Billett said the grain purchase contracts were necessary to support cash flow due to narrow margins. However, the company was unable to generate enough trade volumes to match costs. At the time Billett acknowledged Agfinity’s late payments and tarnished reputation, while also saying that grain purchase contracts would remain a necessary part of the business as it worked to overcome its financial difficulties.

With Agfinity headed to bankruptcy, it’s uncertain when farmers still owed money will be paid, if ever, especially as the company was never licensed through the Canadian Grain Commission.

Dougherty and two other former employees are working at launching a new brokerage firm, Grain Gateway Canada, but have run into some strangeness online.

Social media accounts and a website claiming to be Grain Gateway Canada briefly sprung up in early November before disappearing. A test version of the Agfinity buyers’ hub website was altered to show a Grain Gateway Canada logo and appeared to link the two companies. There were also reports of phone calls to farmers from people claiming to be with the new company.

Dougherty acknowledged Grain Gateway Canada would likely “wear the scarlet letter” of their past association with Agfinity but was adamant that there was no relationship between the companies. She was unsure why someone would be impersonating her fledgling company or attempting to link it to Agfinity but had documentation to back up Grain Gateway Canada’s independence.

“We feel that somebody is going out of their way to make it look like we’re doing something corrupt … and it’s just so disheartening,” said Dougherty, adding “it’s creating chaos, and panic and mistruths.”

—Updated Nov. 19 to include comments from Agfinity president Joseph Billet, updates throughout.

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The company, owned by private equity firm Paine Schwartz Partners, has about $679 million in debt, and plans to sell its business in bankruptcy, according to bankruptcy court documents (all figures US$).

Prima grows peaches, nectarines, plums and apricots on its 18,000 acres of farmland in California’s San Joaquin Valley.

Prima has struggled under its high debt load, and it has also faced significant setbacks since 2020, including a salmonella outbreak that led to a recall of peaches in the U.S. and the 2020 Creek Fire in California, which damaged orchards and reduced crop yields and quality.

Prima will try to find a buyer for its assets by November, hoping to avoid an upcoming cash crunch between its profitable harvest seasons. Prima has about $26 million in cash, and it could run out of money by January 2024 if it doesn’t find a buyer before next year’s harvest season begins in May, according to court documents.

If no buyer emerges, Prima will pivot to a debt restructuring or a liquidation of its business, according to court documents.

The company was formed from a 2019 merger of Gerawan Farming Inc. and Wawona Packing Company. The company had over $300 million in sales revenue in 2022, with 60 per cent of that coming from sale of peaches, according to court documents.

— Dietrich Knauth reports on U.S. bankruptcy and product liability law for Reuters from New York City.

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The CGC on Tuesday announced the results of its review of producer claims in the wake of last July’s bankruptcy filing by Pipeline Foods, whose footprint in Canada included two small southern Saskatchewan grain elevators and a Winnipeg office.

The commission’s review found 49 eligible claims for unpaid deliveries, for which the CGC said Tuesday it will pay out compensation of over $2.2 million from the security posted by Pipeline’s Canadian subsidiary.

Pipeline filed for bankruptcy in Delaware last July 8 and suspended its purchases of grain from Canadian growers effective July 9. It sought another petition July 12 to extend creditor protection to cover its subsidiaries, including the Canadian business.

The company said in a release in July that it decided a Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization “provides the best means to support its operations and to continue the process of selling the company in order to preserve company value and jobs.”

Pipeline said it “regret(s) the hardship this may present to our creditors, including farmers, producers and vendors and we hope we can work through issues together, in due time, with the least amount of disruption.”

Pipeline had bought its two Saskatchewan elevators in 2017: the former Mainline Terminal facility at Wapella, about 130 km south of Yorkton, and the Gull Lake Grain Corp. site at Gull Lake, about 50 km southwest of Swift Current. The elevators have capacity to handle 3,500 and 4,000 tonnes of grain respectively.

The company had just got rolling earlier in 2017 with backing from players including New York agribusiness investment firm Amerra Capital Management. The new company had planned to store, screen and blend organic and non-GMO grains including barley, corn, rye, flax, lentils, oats, peas, soybeans and wheat at the two elevators.

Pipeline, which had also set up a South American regional office in Buenos Aires, said in 2017 it was “pursuing opportunities” to invest $300 million to $500 million over the next three to five years “to build a better, more sustainable supply chain in agriculture.”

As a condition of licensing, CGC-licensed grain companies in Canada must tender security for outstanding grain liabilities to producers, in the form of a bond, letter of credit, letter of guarantee or payables insurance.

If a CGC-licensed company doesn’t meet its payment obligations, the commission then uses that posted security to compensate eligible producers. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Judge Shawn Smith of Court of Queen’s Bench in Saskatoon on Friday approved the sale of Morris to a numbered-company arm of Superior Farms Solutions Ltd. (SFSL), the operator of Rite Way Manufacturing. The numbered company will operate as “Morris Equipment.”

The deal will see Morris’ Saskatoon head office, its Minnedosa, Man. manufacturing plant and its patents and related intellectual property go to Rite Way. The deal’s financial terms and dollar amounts are redacted in court documents posted online.

Rite Way and Morris’ court-appointed monitor have agreed to target a closing date of Dec. 31 for the deal.

In its report to the court on Dec. 11, Alvarez and Marsal, the monitor for Morris, described the deal as “the culmination of all of the efforts and resources expended by Morris Group and its stakeholders over the course of the last 12 months.”

If approved and completed, the monitor said, the deal “will preserve the core components of the 90-year-old farm equipment manufacturing enterprise carried on by Morris Group (and its predecessors) continuously from the 1920s until the present date.”

However, in its “exhaustive sale process” to find an investor or buyer for Morris, “no party had expressed to the monitor an intention to purchase, acquire or operate the Yorkton plant,” the monitor said.

The deal as reached means the Yorkton plant will close down when the deal is completed, officially putting the plant’s 20 remaining employees and another 50 laid-off employees out of work.

Without a letter of understanding, as was reached earlier this year between the company and the Yorkton plant’s union, the plant’s collective bargaining agreement would have required any buyer to “take on a degree of labour relations risk for their existing business operations” even if it didn’t buy the Yorkton facility.

The Yorkton plant’s workers, members of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union Local 955, approved the terms of the letter in August in a vote at an open-air meeting at a Yorkton baseball diamond.

The exact contents of the letter were kept confidential in the monitor’s Dec. 11 report. It calls for creation of a fund to manage payments to Yorkton plant employees “whose employment is anticipated to be terminated.”

The importance of the letter of understanding to the deal “on which the survival of this business enterprise is based cannot be overstated,” Alvarez and Marsal wrote in its report.

BMO, which as Morris’ principal secured creditor is owed about $25 million, has said it supports the proposed sale but also now plans to file for an application-for-bankruptcy order against Morris Group, likely to be heard in court next month.

A bankruptcy would see the employment terminated for Morris’ Saskatoon and Minnedosa staff but, as the monitor’s report puts it, “reasonable prospects exist” for those staff to get employment with the new owner.

Operating in creditor protection since January this year, Morris’ businesses include manufacturing air carts, drills, seeders, harrow bars and bale carriers.

Founded in 1929 as Morris Rod-Weeder, the company was owned by the Morris family up until 2007, when it was sold to an ownership group led by then-CEO Casey Davis. Another ownership group, led by Ben Voss replacing Davis as CEO, took majority control in 2017.

Morris has operated a plant at Yorkton since 1949 and at Minnedosa since 1960, and went on to expand both plants several times. A company-owned dealership and service centre at Virden, Man. closed earlier this year.

Rite Way, founded by Regina machine shop owner Les Hulicsko, is today headquartered in Regina but has its main plant at Imperial, Sask., about 130 km north of the city. Hulicsko, who began building rock pickers in 1972, sold the business in 2012.

Apart from rock pickers and rock windrowers, Rite Way’s product lines today include land rollers, heavy harrows, rotary harrows, crimper rollers, bale carts, grapples and high-speed compact discs. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The Canadian Grain Commission (CGC) is still tallying how much farmers are owed, but CGC spokesman Remi Gosselin said in an interview Nov. 20 that figure has come down as physical stocks of edible beans are returned to farmers.

“We do believe the company has returned the majority of their inventory back to producers who hold primary elevator receipts,” he said.

Gosselin couldn’t specify the volume, but said “it’s significant.”

Why it matters: The more beans farmers retrieve from the elevator means fewer farmers will have to rely on the posted security to be made whole.

On Oct. 30 the CGC suspended Global Grain’s license, and that of two related companies — Globeways Canada Inc., and Canpulse Foods Ltd., located in Mississauga. Ont. and Kindersley, Sask., respectively — after being notified the firms no longer had security to cover money owed to farmers.

All three companies were placed in receivership Nov. 19, Gosselin said.

Meanwhile, the CGC has access to $1.25 million in security from Global Grain, $6.5 million from Canpulse Foods Ltd. and $50,000 from Globeways Canada Inc.

The latter was not doing much direct business with farmers, while the former had not been buying much grain from farmers during the three months before the CGC suspended its license, Gosselin said.

Growers would likely have preferred to see the company remain solvent and another potential buyer in the market, but Manitoba Pulse and Soybean Growers Association executive director Daryl Domitruk said getting the beans back makes “… a potentially bad situation a little better.

“Given the circumstances it was fortunate that a lot of growers, apparently, were able to retrieve their beans,” he said. “That’s going to be helpful to the sector.”

Domitruk said he couldn’t confirm just how many bushels were retrieved, but said that anecdotally it appears to be a substantial amount.

“We know there were line ups of trucks at Plum Coulee,” he said. “There obviously are some people in the system that were being good actors. I think that’s helpful for the industry.”

The CGC has long contended grain sitting in elevators that hasn’t been paid for remains the property of the farmers who delivered it. That’s spelled out in the definitions part of the Canada Grains Act: “The holder of an elevator receipt is entitled to the delivery of grain of the same kind, grade and quantity as referred to in the elevator receipt.”

However, failed grain companies’ secured creditors have argued stored grain is just another asset to be liquidated to cover what they are owed.

With Global Grain it appears the beans were retrieved by farmers before it went into receivership.

“Our view is that if producers delivered grain to an elevator, but they had not been paid for it, it’s their’s,” Gosselin said.

Last year the CGC was preparing to put the issue to a legal test after another pulse crop buyer, ILTA Grain, went into creditor protection, while owing farmers millions of dollars for their crops.

“That matter was never settled, but what happened there sort of tweaked producers to their rights as to grain in inventory.”Gosselin said.

The best way to ensure farmers get paid for their grain is to request payment upon delivery Gosselin said.

CGC security only applies for 90 days after a farmer receives an elevator or grain receipt. Farmers have just 30 days of protection after getting a cheque, but within that 90 day period.

“Let’s say for example you are on day 89, you’ve got one day left to cash a cheque to remain eligible,” Gosselin said.

If the cheque is cashed on day 91 and bounces the farmer is ineligible for security payments, he said.

“We have tremendous respect when the Canadian Grain Commission gets involved in these things,” Domitruk said. “We’d advise growers to heed their advice. It’s better to heed their advice than to learn the hard way.”

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Calgary consultancy Alvarez and Marsal, the court-appointed monitor for Morris, said Tuesday in its latest report to Court of Queen’s Bench in Saskatoon it recommends approval of a sale and vesting order, clearing the way for Morris’ sale to Superior Farms Solutions Ltd. (SFSL), the operator of Rite Way Manufacturing.

The report also recommends Morris’ creditor protection, which has been in place since Jan. 8 with several extensions and otherwise expires Friday, be extended again to Nov. 30.

Alvarez and Marsal said it expects the “transactions contemplated” in the proposed deal to close on or before Nov. 15, and has “continued to work towards satisfying the remaining conditions” of asset purchase agreements (APAs) with SFSL for Morris.

The monitor said it believes it’s appropriate to seek a sale and vesting order now, since it’s working to address those outstanding conditions on or before Friday (Sept. 18). The APAs, it noted, have the approval of BMO, Morris’ largest secured creditor.

The APAs, Alvarez and Marsal said, “represent the highest and best offer received for the assets” of Morris, and a deal with Rite Way “would be more beneficial to (Morris’) creditors than a sale or disposition under a bankruptcy given the offers previously received.”

Remaining conditions for a deal include SFSL reaching an acceptable financing arrangement with its lender — and for Morris to negotiate an “acceptable arrangement” with the union representing employees at its Yorkton, Sask. manufacturing plant.

On the latter, Alvarez and Marsal said a letter of understanding between Morris and the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union Local 955 was drafted and submitted to union members. The membership then approved the terms of the letter on Aug. 26 in a vote at an open-air meeting at a Yorkton baseball diamond.

That letter proposes setting up a fund to manage payments to an unspecified number of Yorkton plant employees “whose employment is anticipated to be terminated” once the sale closes.

Further details weren’t available; the monitor has also asked Queen’s Bench to place the letter under confidential seal along with the proposed APAs.

Apart from its plant at Yorkton, Morris also has a plant at Minnedosa, Man. The Saskatoon-based company’s businesses include manufacturing air carts, drills, seeders, harrow bars and bale carriers.

Founded in 1929 as Morris Rod-Weeder, the company was owned by the Morris family up until 2007, when it was sold to an ownership group led by then-CEO Casey Davis. Another ownership group, led by Ben Voss replacing Davis as CEO, took majority control in 2017.

Apart from BMO, Morris’ secured creditors include Avrio, Kubota Canada, Wells Fargo and the financing arm of fabricating equipment maker Trumpf, among others. Unsecured creditors include Western Economic Diversification Canada and various trade vendors.

Rite Way, founded by Regina machine shop owner Les Hulicsko, is today headquartered in Regina but has its main plant at Imperial, Sask., about 130 km north of the city. Hulicsko, who began building rock pickers in 1972, sold the business in 2012.

Apart from rock pickers and rock windrowers, Rite Way’s product lines today include land rollers, heavy harrows, rotary harrows, crimper rollers, bale carts, grapples and high-speed compact discs. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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