Employees of the Sherwood Park-based company received a letter from receiver Ernst and Young on June 11, detailing the termination of their employment with the Tirecraft Group. Instead, employees had the option of working for the receiver on a day-to-day basis until their services were no longer required.
“The Receiver intends to continue to monetize the Company’s assets and wind down any reminaing operations,” states a letter from Ernst and Young to Tirecraft employees. “Accordingly, the Receiver would like to retain your services on a temporary basis in order to assist us during the Receivership period.”
Ernst and Young, which was contacted by the News but was unwilling to comment on the matter, attempted to sell the company early in June and sent out a hopeful email to employees about the deal’s progress. Last Monday, however, employees were sent notice that their employment with the Tirecraft Group would be terminated.
An employee who refused to be named had worked for Tirecraft for 20 years before his job was terminated last week. He said he’s disgusted by the way the business was run in its final years and discouraged by the way the receiver, Ernst and Young, handled the situation.
“This has devastated hundreds and hundreds of people. In fact, if you look at the small suppliers who were burned through this, there’s thousands of people who have been affected,” he said. “There’s been nothing positive from this.”
The Tirecraft employee said many of his colleagues are now in a very unstable situation. He said it is frustrating to think he spent 20 years working his way up the pay scale at Tirecraft, only to be back on the street to starting over again.
“What would you think after 20 years working up to a position in the company?” the former employee said. “It was a good paying job, it was a great position and then all of a sudden that income is ripped from underneath you and at my age, making a lateral move at the kind of income I was making is impossible.”
Another employee of Tirecraft, Bill Tiffin, said he wished he had known something like this was going to happen at the company when he started working there nine months ago.
“Basically we’re just out on our own without any severence pay and without vacation pay either,” Tiffin said. “It seemed like the company, as far as I could tell, had a good future. It’s hard to imagine that they decided to shut it down instead of trying to operate it.”
In April, Tirecraft Group informed its employees and suppliers that the Court of Queen’s Bench had granted the Tirecraft Group creditor protection under Canada’s Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act. On May 16, the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench approved the sale of Tirecraft Group Inc. to a Quebec-based tire distributor, Pneus Unimax, but that deal fell through before closing transactions could be processed May 30.
Tirecraft Group Inc. includes Tirecraft Auto Centers Ltd., Tirecraft Auto Centers (Operations) Ltd., Canadian Treads Corporation, Canadian Treads MFG Corporation and Remington Tire Distributors Inc. A Canadian company based in Sherwood Park, Tirecraft is made up of 48 corporate stores, 22 tire distribution warehouses with the Remington Tire Distributors and four Canadian Treads retreading plants for medium trucks. (Tire Review/Akron)
