Oak + Fort: four cents on the dollar and out of the CCAA

Min Gyoung Kang founded Oak + Fort in Vancouver in 2010, and by her sworn account the brand of apparel, accessories, jewellery and homeware grew "for many years without external funding," scaling itself by "re-investing its profits," per the Affidavit #1 of Min Gyoung Kang, June 6, 2025, paras. 1, 4, 16. The trouble, in her telling, came with the stores. Between 2021 and 2024 the company opened 14 in Canada and 12 in the United States, "an aggressive brick-and-mortar expansion strategy" that left its e-commerce platforms under-invested; the American stores met "significant operational and sales challenges"; and U.S. tariffs on China, where 68% of the group's products were made, "heavily eroded margins," to the point of negative gross margins in the months before the filing, per the Affidavit #1 of Min Gyoung Kang, June 6, 2025, paras. 17–19.

By June 2025 there were 42 stores, 26 in Canada and 16 in the United States, producing about 85% of revenue, and 601 employees, 121 of them at the Vancouver head office. The company had missed rent at certain properties once before, from February 2024, and says it cleared those arrears by the end of that December. From January 2025 it was short again. It owed about $2,778,000 in rent at its Canadian stores and about C$4,276,000 at its American ones when, after the rent due at the end of May went unpaid, certain landlords, primarily in the United States, threatened "tenant lock-out and seizure of inventory," per the Affidavit #1 of Min Gyoung Kang, June 6, 2025, paras. 15, 30, 35–36, 48–50. KSV Restructuring Inc. was retained on June 2 and reported the group "in arrears with virtually all of its landlords and suppliers," per the Pre-Filing Report of the Proposed Monitor, June 6, 2025, s. 2.0, para. 2; s. 2.1, para. 5. The six companies filed notices of intention under the BIA on June 2 and 3, and on June 6 Justice Fitzpatrick of the Supreme Court of British Columbia continued the proposal proceedings under the CCAA, with KSV as monitor, per the Sixth Report of the Monitor, Dec. 23, 2025, s. 1.0, paras. 1–2 and the Initial Order, June 6, 2025, para. 4.

On August 18, 2026, the monitor filed the certificate that, under Justice Fitzpatrick's sanction order, terminates the proceeding and discharges the monitor. The monitor is now AlixPartners Restructuring, Inc., which the certificate describes as formerly operating as KSV and which was substituted for KSV as court officer on June 1, 2026 under an order of May 29, per the Monitor's Certificate, Aug. 17, 2026, recital B and n. 1 and the Plan Sanction Order, Jan. 8, 2026, paras. 33–34. In between, the company closed eight stores, took on new preferred shareholders and an asset-based lender, and offered its unsecured creditors four cents on the dollar.

$2.5 million of interim financing from five lenders

At the comeback hearing on June 16, 2025, Justice Fitzpatrick extended the stay to July 4, raised the administration charge to $500,000 and granted a directors' charge of up to $3.4 million, both ranking ahead of the secured creditors except for the Royal Bank of Canada's cash collateral, per the Amended and Restated Initial Order, June 16, 2025, paras. 17, 27, 42, 44. The group's D&O policy carried $2 million of coverage and expired on November 6, 2025, per the Affidavit #2 of Min Gyoung Kang, June 12, 2025, para. 25. Business Development Bank of Canada, one of three secured lenders with RBC and Shopify Inc., opposed the amount. Its response called the charge "excessive and unreasonable," said there was no evidence the directors had tried to extend or replace the insurance, and argued that "[t]he directors and officers, having guided the Companies into the circumstances they currently find themselves in, ought not to be able to improve their position through the CCAA filing," per the Response to Petition of Business Development Bank of Canada, June 13, 2025, Part 5 and the Affidavit #1 of Min Gyoung Kang, June 6, 2025, para. 44. The order issued with the charge at $3.4 million.

The interim loan came at the next hearing. The company and its chief restructuring officer, Reflect Advisors, LLC, had approached or been approached by more than 15 prospective lenders; apart from the eventual lenders, one engaged meaningfully, on terms the monitor judged less favourable. The company's limited collateral was primarily about $14 million of inventory spread across 41 locations. The facility was $2.5 million from five lenders: Klaus Lam ($1,000,000), Bear and Otter Holdings Ltd. ($500,000), two individuals together ($300,000) and Min Kang ($700,000), at 15% a year capitalized monthly, with a commitment fee and an exit fee each set at the lesser of $50,000 or 2%. "Despite her affiliation with the Company," KSV wrote, it and the company considered the facility in stakeholders' interests "as it offers materially better terms than the only other interim financing proposal received"; the monitor described it as provided "on an arm's length basis," its cost within the range of interim facilities approved in Canadian CCAA proceedings commenced from 2022 to 2025, per the Second Report of the Monitor, June 30, 2025, s. 3.0, paras. 1–3; s. 3.1, para. 1(f). Justice Fitzpatrick approved it on July 4 in a second amended and restated initial order that extended the stay to October 3; a claims process order issued the same day, per the Second Amended and Restated Initial Order, July 4, 2025, paras. 17, 39–42 and the Sixth Report of the Monitor, Dec. 23, 2025, s. 1.0, para. 5.

The company terminated Reflect's engagement on July 11 to help "balance their cash flow obligations," and re-engaged in August on a limited-purpose basis to prepare investor materials, per the Affidavit #5 of Min Gyoung Kang, Sept. 26, 2025, paras. 19–20.

Eight stores, 81 jobs and $11 million of landlord claims

By late September the company had drawn the full $2.5 million, and its forecast to November 23 showed no need for further financing, owing in part, the monitor said, to expected holiday spending, per the Third Report of the Monitor, Sept. 29, 2025, s. 4.0, para. 2. Six stores had closed by September 26: two after their leases were disclaimed, three when their leases expired, and one after the company surrendered premises "following the landlord's breach of lease obligations," per the Affidavit #5 of Min Gyoung Kang, Sept. 26, 2025, para. 17. Two more American stores closed in October. The final count was two in Canada and six in the United States, leaving 34 stores; with leases at two more American locations set to run out on their terms in 2026 and 2027, Kang put the rent savings at about $2 million a year, and said no further disclaimers were expected. The company had terminated 81 employees, 43 in Canada and 38 in the United States, per the Affidavit #6 of Min Gyoung Kang, Nov. 17, 2025, paras. 12, 14–16. The monitor's figures run from approximately 465 employees at the start of the CCAA to approximately 409, a count that leaves out casual and seasonal holiday hires, per the Fifth Report of the Monitor, Nov. 26, 2025, s. 2.1, para. 1(a), (d).

Simon Property Group's restructuring claims for two disclaimed locations arrived after the bar dates; they were settled at lower amounts, and the monitor consented to the late filing, citing "genuine inadvertence." Two landlords filed restructuring claims totalling about $11 million, which the monitor and the company said should be reduced for the landlords' duty to mitigate, per the Fifth Report of the Monitor, Nov. 26, 2025, s. 3.1, paras. 6–8. Settlements executed before the creditors' meeting allowed them at approximately $4,982,111 in aggregate, and about $1.5 million of landlord claims for post-filing amounts were resolved as ordinary-course payables, which the plan leaves unaffected, per the Supplement to the Fifth Report of the Monitor, Dec. 17, 2025, s. 3.1, para. 1; s. 3.2, paras. 1–2.