Seafood 2000 gets CCAA protection to keep PEI lobster processor operating through spring season

Seafood 2000 Ltd., a Georgetown, Prince Edward Island lobster processor and distributor, obtained CCAA protection on May 15, 2026, after a liquidity crunch left it without enough cash to fund lobster purchases, payroll and other operating needs during the critical spring lobster season.

Seafood 2000 operates a lobster processing, packaging, storage and distribution business from a 67,883 square-foot facility at 10 Water Street in Georgetown, selling lobster into Canada, the United States, Europe and Asia. The business has operated in Georgetown since 1992 and is licensed by the Province of PEI and the Government of Canada to produce and export lobster products. The company also owns 2 residential properties used to house temporary foreign workers and leases land from the Georgetown Port Authority. During a typical high season, Seafood 2000 employs 5 full-time year-round employees, 165 to 170 full-time seasonal employees and 5 casual employees, including 100 to 110 plant workers through the Temporary Foreign Worker Program.

The current ownership group acquired the business in July 2024. Etienne Dodier, Louis Landry and Conrad Leger, through a corporate entity, purchased all outstanding shares of Seafood 2000 for $22.7 million from a family ownership group that included Patrick Dodier, Etienne Dodier’s father. The acquisition was financed with a $16.2 million Farm Credit Canada loan and $6 million of vendor take-back financing from three former principal shareholders. The post-acquisition business plan moved Seafood 2000 toward direct sales, including through Packers Pride USA LLC, a New Hampshire entity in which Seafood 2000 holds a 70% interest, and away from broker-driven distribution. The strategy was designed to capture margin, but it also required the company to carry lobster inventory for longer periods, which increased cold storage, receivables and working capital demands.

The filing was driven by a seasonal working-capital squeeze that hit just as the spring lobster season began. Seafood 2000 purchases lobster from eight PEI wharfs and, during the spring season, buys an average of 250,000 pounds of live lobster per week. The company was current with lobster fishers when it filed, but said it lacked cash to make payments for lobster purchased during the week of May 4, 2026, with payments due May 15, 2026 and expected to fall between $1.75 million and $2.15 million. Without those payments, the company said it would be unable to keep buying lobster and operations would stop.

Seafood 2000 attributed its liquidity pressure to margin compression from higher lobster, transportation, storage and packaging costs, volatility in lobster pricing and demand, tariff uncertainty, escalating fuel costs and lack of available credit. The company sought to expand its National Bank of Canada operating line in May 2025, initially received a $2 million overdraft that was later increased to $3 million, and then saw that overdraft converted into a demand loan after NBC declined to approve the larger line without stronger projections. MNP was retained before the filing to assist with financial projections, but NBC remained dissatisfied and referred the account to special loans. NBC provided a forbearance agreement on December 23, 2025.

The company’s capital structure includes two main secured lenders. FCC is owed about $16 million under the acquisition financing, secured by real property, leasehold and personal property security, subject to NBC’s priority over accounts receivable and inventory. Seafood 2000 was current on FCC payments but in breach of a debt service ratio covenant, and FCC issued a default letter dated April 13, 2026. NBC is owed about $2.1 million. The company also has approximately $6 million in vendor take-back financing tied to the 2024 acquisition.

As of May 2, 2026, Seafood 2000 had assets of approximately $26.5 million, including $556,376 in cash, $1.2 million in receivables, $1.9 million in inventory and $22.7 million in fixed assets and intangibles. Estimated creditor claims totalled approximately $22.4 million, including $16 million owing to FCC, $2.1 million owing to NBC, $49,595 in property taxes and $4.2 million in trade payables and other unsecured claims.

The restructuring plan is operational rather than transactional at this stage. Seafood 2000 intends to continue ordinary-course operations, pay critical suppliers with Monitor oversight and use DIP funding provided by Finance PEI to bridge the spring season while it works on a broader restructuring.

MNP is the monitor and Resolve Advisory is the company’s financial advisor. Counsel is Cox & Palmer for Seafood 2000, McInnes Cooper for FCC, and Gowling WLG for NBC.