Transbroue’s business is going from bad to worse: the company announces its intention to make a proposal to its creditors within 30 days. This announcement comes at a time when Transbroue is the target of a new lawsuit from a former business partner.
Indeed, Alchimiste Microbrasserie is suing Transbroue, its shareholder Triani and their directors for $1,194,940.22, alleging that they misappropriated and appropriated sums of money collected on behalf of Alchimiste.
The owner of this Joliette microbrewery, Pol Brisset, publicly announced last month that he was stopping working with Transbroue. In court documents filed on December 1, we learn that the relationship between the brewery and its distributor ended badly, including a formal notice.
The difficulties of Transbroue therefore continue to make the headlines.
Last year, this company, which then sold, distributed and represented drinks, specializing in microbrewery beers, was sold to the Triani Group, which then took over the entire Glutenberg Group. – of which Transbroue is a part.
In an interview with La Presse last week, Joannie Couture, general manager of Triani, made no secret of the fact that business was not going well. According to him, already at the time of the acquisition, Transbroue was carrying debts.
Triani is also in dispute with some of the former shareholders of Transbroue, in connection with the 2022 sale.
However, things have not improved: payment terms have lengthened, say former business partners who left the Transbroue ship – and not in harmony.
Several industry players have criticized Transbroue’s way of doing things under its new administration.
In August 2023, six former partners of Transbroue filed a joint lawsuit. They are seeking more than $635,000 in amounts owed.
Of the group, Brasserie Générale de Charlesbourg has the largest claim, $154,225. The SME recently published a message on social networks to explain that this situation had concrete effects for it, and complicated its development.
More than anything, Pierre-Hugo Houle asks himself a lot of questions. “We wonder where our money went,” he explained in an interview before Transbroue’s announcement of its intention to make a proposal to its creditors.
In the documents filed in Superior Court, the Alchimiste brewery goes further. “It appears that the defendant Transbroue inc. is insolvent and that she has used and is using to her advantage the sums of money that she manages in her capacity as agent and administrator of the property of others”, we can read there.
The brewers of Charlesbourg and Joliette, like all the other people involved in this affair, will have to study the offer that will be made to them in the next month. Because, even if they have taken legal action against Transbroue, the proposals are aimed at all creditors. The Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act also provides that the filing of a proposal suspends legal actions.
Transbroue management also announces that it intends to review its business model.
“In October, Transbroue laid off and eliminated 10% of its workforce in addition to adopting several measures to reduce its operating costs,” we read in a press release published by the company. Management is also working on a plan to reorganize its premises in order to keep its expenses to a minimum. »
Transbroue management prefers not to make additional comments until the end of the procedures.