Vaughan, Ontario-based Niigon Machines Ltd. filed for bankruptcy Sept. 24 and all employees were immediately terminated.
Founded in 2008 by industrialist Robert Schad, Niigon went out of business with C$113.4 million (US$90.1 million) in liabilities and C$5.2 million (US$4.1 million) in assets.
Sources said Niigon closed after a failed effort to sell the company to Stans, Switzerland-based Benpac Holding AG.
Schad, a member of the Plastics Hall of Fame, founded the company as Athena Automation Ltd. and changed the name to Niigon in 2018. The name means "for the future" in indigenous Ojibwa.
The company focused on modular customizable machines with a five-year warranty to differentiate itself in the highly competitive injection molding machine market.
Niigon offered eight basic models ranging from 30 to 600 metric tons, and company officials set out to build long-term relationships with suppliers to develop an efficient, integrated, demand-based network to support automotive-style just-in-time assembly of machines.
Now some of those suppliers are creditors scheduled to meet with Allan David Nackan, an appointed licensed insolvency trustee, for the first time on Oct. 15.
Nackan, who works for A. Farber & Partners Inc. in Toronto, was appointed receiver and trustee in the bankruptcy.
His colleague, Farber Managing Director Paul Denton, sent a Sept. 24 letter to Niigon employees notifying them that the company was insolvent and their benefits would cease Sept. 30.
Employees were also asked to return any company possessions by 4:30 p.m. Oct. 1.
Unpaid wages and vacation pay will be paid out as quickly as possible, Denton also said, adding that any claims for severance pay would be considered an unsecured claim.
"It currently appears that there will not be any monies available from the sale and/or other realizations of the company's assets for distribution to the company's unsecured creditors," Denton says in the letter. "However, the payment of a discretionary bonus will be reassessed once the receiver has realized on the company's assets."
Benpac Holding already owns another Canada-based plastics machinery company. It purchased W. Amsler Equipment Inc. in Bolton, Ontario, in January 2020.
Amsler moved into a 40,000-square-foot building owned by Niigon Machines in June 2021.
Sources told Plastics News that Benpac Holding was negotiating a deal to buy Niigon Machines, but when the deal fell through, the owner of Niigon filed for bankruptcy.
Schad, who is 91, also started Husky Injection Molding Systems, which he sold in 2007.