Regina 鈥� They may be going through difficulties, but Advance Engineered Products Ltd., based in Regina, has not thrown in the towel yet. Despite having filed for protection from its creditors in Court of Queen鈥檚 Bench on April 10, the company was pushing its product at its booth in the Williston Basin Petroleum Conference on April 28-30.
Pat Boeker, vice-president of sales and marketing, told Pipeline News they are presently owned by the bank, and that Ernst & Young, an accounting firm, is the monitor. The previous owner was a private equity company.
鈥淓rnst & Young will make an application in May to sell Advance to pay off bank debts,鈥� Boeker said on April 29.
A number of industry competitors have been in, looking over the books, in the interest of purchasing it. Some private equity firms have also expressed interest.
Boeker said he was confident they would be under new ownership by mid-summer.
鈥淲e鈥檙e a going concern. We鈥檙e worth more alive than dead. We took a lot of orders in the last three weeks,鈥� he said.
AEPL is one of Canada鈥檚 largest manufacturers of tank trucks, trailers, and vacuum truck equipment with manufacturing operations in Saskatchewan, Alberta and Quebec. AEPL operates under the brand names: Advance, Lazer Inox, and Westech. In addition, the company operates parts and services operations, under the brand name Advance Tank Centers, in Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia.
Customers are expressing confidence, he said. Some laid-off workers have been recalled. In April, Advance laid off it production workers.聽
A year ago, more than 60 per cent of the company鈥檚 product was sold to the upstream oil and gas industry.聽
鈥淚 am very confident we will be sold,鈥� Boeker said, adding there was a lot of interest from big players.
