VANCOUVER — A moving and storage company with 86 years of history in western Canada has announced its closing up shop because of continued losses.
Williams Moving and Storage says in a news release that it tried to reorganize to save the business but losses have continued to mount.
The company says the Williams family, which covered those losses over the past decade, decided it could no longer suppory the company,so officials are seeking protection under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act.
It says it plans to liquidate its assets under supervision over the coming weeks, before filing a proposal to fairly distributes funds to creditors and employees.
The company says Williams Moving and Storage (Cranbrook) Ltd., Williams Moving and Storage (Lethbridge) Ltd., and Williams Commercial are independently owned and operated and will remain open for business.
Unifor has about 125 members working for Williams.
National rep Mark Cameron said some Williams owner-operators are also losing out.
“In December, those people racked up some expenses that they would expect to be compensated for today," he said.
"Fuel costs, labour costs, maintenance, that sort of thing. Those people are out tens of thousands of dollars.”
Cameron said Williams has been bleeding for a while, especially since the recession hit in 2008 when major contracts for corporate moves got cut back.
"They were never able to really break out of that,” he said.
