Canada Tire: the year is decided in July

Québec law requires a car to be on winter tires by December 1 every year, and that single date organizes the whole of Canada Tire's calendar. Supplier production and ocean transit take the time they take, so tires that are not ordered by early to mid-July will not be on a shelf for the fall and winter peak. The season is bought in the summer and sold in the autumn, per Application for the Issuance of a First Day Initial Order, an Amended and Restated Initial Order and a SISP Order, July 17, 2026, paras. 42–43.

On July 17, 2026 — precisely the week the orders had to be placed — Canada Tire filed for protection under the CCAA instead.

Ninety-eight years, four generations

La Cie Canada Tire Inc. was founded in 1928 by Louis Wiseman and has been passed down through his family since. It is now led by his great-grandson, Gabriel Granatstein, who is chief executive officer and holds all of the company's voting shares; he joined in 2016 as chief operating officer and general counsel, working alongside a father who had led the business for more than forty-five years, per Application for the Issuance of a First Day Initial Order, July 17, 2026, paras. 24–25.

It began in retail and became a distributor — passenger, performance, SUV, light-truck, medium-truck and winter tires, plus wheels and related products, sold to independent retailers, fleet operators, new car dealerships and sub-distributors. As at December 31, 2025 it carried approximately 3,828 customer accounts across Québec, Ontario and Atlantic Canada, Newfoundland included, per Application for the Issuance of a First Day Initial Order, July 17, 2026, paras. 26–28.

Its leased distribution centres are at Salaberry-de-Valleyfield in Québec, which is the head office, and at Saint-Augustin-de-Desmaures, Mississauga, Dartmouth, Moncton and Mount Pearl — plus Sherbrooke, which is being folded into an expanded Saint-Augustin-de-Desmaures facility as its lease runs out on August 31, 2026, after which the application says the company will operate six, per Application for the Issuance of a First Day Initial Order, July 17, 2026, para. 29.

A business with two halves

The seasonality is not a nuance in this record; it is the financial architecture, and the application sets it out in numbers rather than adjectives.

Across the six fiscal years from 2020 to 2025, the second half of the year accounted for between 58.6% and 64.3% of annual revenue, averaging 61.4%. October and November alone averaged roughly 34% of the year. In fiscal 2025 those two months produced $20,706,060 — 33.6% of everything the company sold, per Application for the Issuance of a First Day Initial Order, July 17, 2026, para. 30.

The costs do not follow that curve. Rent, warehouse salaries, distribution infrastructure and administration are substantially fixed and fall evenly through the year, so the company loses money in the first half as a matter of course and earns it in the autumn. In fiscal 2025 it recorded losses before income taxes in January, February, March, May, June, July and August — and earnings before income taxes of $1,628,248 in September, October and November alone, per Application for the Issuance of a First Day Initial Order, July 17, 2026, para. 31.

A lender looking at that pattern in June sees a borrower losing money. The borrower sees a company two months from its year.

What is owed, and to whom

Canada Tire was incorporated under the Companies Act on January 16, 1934 and amalgamated under the Business Corporations Act (Québec) on January 1, 2022. Its co-applicant, Canada Supply & Tire NS Inc., is a Nova Scotia corporation with no operations and no employees; it is in the proceeding because it guaranteed the senior debt, per Application for the Issuance of a First Day Initial Order, July 17, 2026, paras. 35–40.

That debt sits with FGI Worldwide LLC, a Delaware limited liability company acting as lender, agent and hypothecary representative under a Revolving Credit and Guarantee Agreement dated December 18, 2025 — an agreement Canada Tire entered into to refinance and repay in full a prior asset-based facility with Wells Fargo Capital Finance Corporation Canada. The FGI facility is an asset-based revolver with a maximum authorized limit of up to $30 million, maturing December 18, 2028, secured by substantially all the assets of the applicants and of the Granatstein Family Trust, which is a guarantor alongside Canada Supply. Availability turns on a borrowing base: eligible receivables at a 90% advance rate where insured — about 92% of eligible receivables — and 85% otherwise, with eligible inventory advanced against at an effective rate of roughly 55%, per Application for the Issuance of a First Day Initial Order, July 17, 2026, paras. 60–64.

As at May 31, 2026 the company's assets carried a book value of approximately $26,456,076 on an unaudited basis — $200,000 of cash, $5,400,000 of receivables, $16,300,000 of inventory and the balance elsewhere. Total liabilities were approximately $32,453,349, of which $14,100,000 was the secured indebtedness to FGI and $240,881 was accrued employee vacation, per Application for the Issuance of a First Day Initial Order, July 17, 2026, paras. 57–58.