Sweet Berry Farms: 205 prospects, seven NDAs, no bid

When Thomas Hickey swore his first affidavit on February 13, 2026, the farm at 27 Farm Road in Black Duck Siding, in western Newfoundland, held approximately 50 breeding sows averaging 1,200 pounds, 215 market hogs and 50 weaners, and he was the only employee left on it. He worked a minimum of 12 hours a day, six to eight of them on animal care, and more than half the sows were due to give birth within two months, at about 15 piglets a litter, per the Initial Affidavit of Thomas Hickey, Feb. 13, 2026, paras. 6, 12, 51, 63–64, 77.

Much of Hickey's affidavit is about what the Bank of Montreal had asked the court for, a receiver-manager, and what it would take such a receiver to empty the barns. By his estimate, the local butcher could process about 20 market hogs, 15 sows or 30 weaners a week, so slaughter would take roughly 16 weeks with one butcher and eight with two, cost an estimated $176,775 to $262,775 and leave approximately 114,350 pounds of meat that could take up to a year to sell. A live sale, he wrote, "is also uncertain. . . . The practical market is outside the Province," and carriers "may refuse to load unless they are confident the ferry will sail." A monitor overseeing the company in possession, he concluded, "is better suited to a farm with livestock than a receiver-manager trying to liquidate in winter," per the Initial Affidavit of Thomas Hickey, Feb. 13, 2026, paras. 46, 54–55, 62, 67–71, 74.

The Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador granted Sweet Berry Farms Ltd. an initial order under the CCAA on February 17, with Grant Thornton Limited as monitor, per the First Report of the Monitor, Feb. 25, 2026, paras. 1–2. Five months later a sale process has produced no bid, the company has sold its own hogs, the stay has expired, and the bank's private receiver has taken possession of the land. On July 14 the monitor filed its memorandum on an application to approve its fees and end the proceeding.

Barns, a fire and 250 acres of leased land

The company was incorporated in 2017 and is owned in equal halves by Hickey and his brother, both directors; the brother works off the farm. It sold from a farm storefront, delivered across the province and supplied seniors' homes, high schools, restaurants, abattoirs and farmers' markets. Vegetable plantings went from about 45 acres in 2024, with $512,356.50 in recorded income, to about 85 acres and $670,585.50 in 2025; for 2026 Hickey hoped to plant approximately 250 acres and projected income of approximately $3 million, per the Initial Affidavit of Thomas Hickey, Feb. 13, 2026, paras. 6–11.

The affidavit's account of what went wrong starts with a cold-storage fire in 2021 that cost the farm its stored inventory; insurance covered approximately 25% of crop value. In 2023 and 2025 approximately $6.4 million went, over a short period, into new turkey, hog and cow barns and the reconstruction of cold storage, and approximately $1.2 million into preparing 250 acres of leased land. Between September 2024 and July 2025 the farm sought financing to buy the leased property and an abattoir; both efforts were declined, "leaving SBFL with elevated leverage, material arrears, payments past due and insufficient working capital." From 2024 slaughter capacity became "a binding constraint," and in the spring of 2024 cattle bought for slaughter cost more than their meat sold for, per the Initial Affidavit of Thomas Hickey, Feb. 13, 2026, paras. 27–33.

"In hindsight, management—including me—accepts that optimism and a growth-oriented mindset resulted in directing working capital toward expansion rather than preserving liquidity and satisfying existing debts," Hickey swore. "We also relied too heavily on anticipated financing that was not formally approved," per the Initial Affidavit of Thomas Hickey, Feb. 13, 2026, para. 34. Reviewing the financial statements, the proposed monitor found long-term debt up by approximately $856,054 from fiscal 2023 to 2024 and by approximately $1,776,602 the next year, and pre-tax income down by approximately $1,827,341 from fiscal 2024 to 2025, about $821,450 of the decrease attributed to land improvement, per the Pre-Filing Report of the Monitor, Feb. 16, 2026, para. 21.

Talks with the Royal Bank of Canada to refinance the BMO debt began in August 2025. "The negotiations were not successful as BMO called its loan." A Farm Debt Mediation produced a recovery plan but no consensual resolution, and BMO applied for a receivership under the court file number the CCAA now carries, per the Initial Affidavit of Thomas Hickey, Feb. 13, 2026, paras. 35–39.

BMO had frozen the chequing account, and the cash-flow forecast began at nil. The proposed monitor's estimate from the books as of February 13 put secured claims at $4,482,588: BMO at $3,340,512, Kubota Canada Ltd. at $678,884, the Agri Commodity Management Association at $463,191 and a nominal $1 for KM Capital Corp. Unsecured claims came to $832,222, the largest M&M Farming Company Ltd. at $345,000, and the total to $5,314,810, per the Pre-Filing Report of the Monitor, Feb. 16, 2026, paras. 22, 29.

A $350,000 facility and 49 days

The initial order stayed proceedings to February 27, granted a $200,000 administration charge for the monitor, its counsel and the company's counsel, and approved interim financing from Libra Finance Company Inc. of up to $145,500 at first. A charging order ranked the administration charge first, the DIP charge second and existing security after them, and a sealing order covered three confidential exhibits, per the First Report of the Monitor, Feb. 25, 2026, paras. 2–3: a February 2026 appraisal of the farm property, the recovery plan, and a non-binding letter from Farm Lending Canada that Hickey offered as evidence of refinancing efforts, per the Initial Affidavit of Thomas Hickey, Feb. 13, 2026, paras. 15, 37, 78, 94.

Libra's facility was capped at $350,000, with a 3% commitment fee, per the Pre-Filing Report of the Monitor, Feb. 16, 2026, para. 35. The pre-filing report gave its interest rate as 8.75%. The First Report called that an error: the rate was 8.75% plus the Royal Bank of Canada rate, 13.2% in all as of February 25, or 1.2% above the approximately 12.0% average of recent interim financings the monitor had reviewed. The monitor still considered the rate "fair and commercially reasonable in the circumstances," per the First Report of the Monitor, Feb. 25, 2026, paras. 35–37.

On February 27 the court extended the stay to May 15, raised the DIP limit and charge to $350,000, and approved a sale and investment solicitation process to be administered by the monitor in consultation with the company, BMO and the lender, per the Second Report of the Monitor, May 29, 2026, para. 4. The process had one phase: launch on March 11, notice from any insider or credit bidder by March 25, binding bids by April 29, 49 days after launch, and an approval motion filed by May 15, the last day of the extended stay. Bids needed a 10% deposit and could carry no break fee. The First Report said the monitor understood that "one or more Related Parties may consider submitting an Insider Bid(s) in the SISP, being Thomas Hickey or his nominee"; if one did, the company would receive no disclosure about the process and the monitor would run it alone, in consultation with the lender and BMO, per the First Report of the Monitor, Feb. 25, 2026, paras. 24, 27, 30.

The monitor's solicitation letter described Sweet Berry as "the only commercial farrow-to-finish hog operation in the province," with approximately 315 hogs, automated hog and turkey barns and about 80 acres, some 70 of them cleared, offered "as is, where is," with template documents for a traditional vesting order or a reverse vesting order, per the Second Report of the Monitor, May 29, 2026, App. F.

Two hundred and five names

With the company and BMO, the monitor assembled a target list of 205 potentially interested parties, the largest groups farmers (65), industry associations (32), abattoirs (26) and First Nations (19). It emailed them the letter at the March 11 launch, sent it to Doane Grant Thornton LLP's partners and principals across Atlantic Canada, and advertised in allNovaScotia, allNewfoundland, allNewBrunswick, Insolvency Insider and The Telegram, per the Second Report of the Monitor, May 29, 2026, paras. 23, 27–29.

Seven parties signed NDAs and got access to the data room: two insiders or related parties, two liquidators, and three from farming, agricultural investment or financing. "While certain of the Qualified Bidders were working to advance a binding bid by the Bid Deadline, unfortunately no offer was received by the Monitor at the Bid Deadline," the monitor reported. "Given the Company's limited liquidity, no funds were available for a continuation of the SISP or an alternative restructuring initiative to advance in these CCAA proceedings," per the Second Report of the Monitor, May 29, 2026, paras. 30, 32–33.

The notice of April 24

Five days before that deadline, in a two-page letter addressed to Justice Stack, Grant Thornton reported under s. 23(1)(d) of the CCAA that the company's results against its cash-flow forecast constituted a material adverse change. Over the nine weeks to April 19, operating receipts were $286,349 against a budget of $472,243 and operating disbursements $453,624 against $407,302, so a forecast net operating inflow of $64,941 came in as an outflow of $167,275. The company had approximately $7,394 in its chequing account and $33,000 left on the DIP loan, and on its projections would be unable to pay a post-filing trade payable of approximately $16,678 or the outstanding fees of the monitor and both sets of counsel. It "does not have sufficient liquidity to continue operations to April 29, 2026, the Bid Deadline," the letter says; the monitor had raised its concerns with BMO and Libra on April 22 and 23, and "neither party has confirmed that it is willing to advance further financing to the Company in the circumstances." The letter closes with a line for creditors: "Creditors are advised to govern themselves accordingly," per the Report of Material Adverse Change, Apr. 24, 2026, pp. 1–2.

The hogs, and then the receiver

What followed was a wind-down the company recommended and the monitor helped plan. The company told the monitor, BMO and Libra it would wholesale about 90 hogs to a purchaser in Nova Scotia on or around May 7 and 8, about 55 more to a local purchaser, and its frozen beef and pork to a local purchaser, which the monitor understood would leave no live animals or frozen meat on the premises. It had kept up its payments to Kubota for leased equipment until the April notice, per the Second Report of the Monitor, May 29, 2026, paras. 8–9, 18(k), 19.

The stay expired on May 15, and the company did not ask for another, per the Memorandum of Fact and Law of the Monitor, July 14, 2026, para. 22. On May 19 BMO appointed MNP Ltd. as private receiver under its mortgage on 27 Farm Road, general security agreement and Bank Act security. In its Form 87 notice dated May 27, MNP says it met Hickey, toured the premises and took possession of the real property; it "will not be operating the business and has confirmed that all livestock and inventory had previously been realized by the Company during the CCAA proceeding and prior to the Receiver's appointment." Machinery, equipment and vehicles were stored offsite in Deer Lake, and MNP intended to commission appraisals, per the Second Report of the Monitor, May 29, 2026, para. 10(b) and App. D (Form 87).

In February the monitor was not of the view that creditors would be better served by proceedings under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, per the First Report of the Monitor, Feb. 25, 2026, para. 47. In May, noting the private receiver, it wrote: "The Monitor IS of the view that it would be more beneficial to the Company's creditors if proceedings were taken under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act," per the Second Report of the Monitor, May 29, 2026, para. 54.

The account, and the exit

The monitor puts its own costs at $133,528.89, covering about 233 hours to May 14 at an average of approximately $403.83 an hour, expenses, HST and an estimated $15,000 to wind up; the report puts the costs of its counsel, Stewart McKelvey, at $12,524.00, for about 14 hours of work plus a $5,000 estimate to finish. At May 29, $81,948.03 was outstanding under the administration charge, net of retainers and including those estimates, $23,580.29 of it for the company's counsel, and the DIP charge stood at $332,495.45 on the monitor's estimate, with interest and fees still accruing. If the fees are approved, the monitor intends to file its termination certificate once it has received enough to pay the unpaid fees of the monitor, its counsel and the company's counsel; filing it would discharge the administration charge and end the CCAA, per the Second Report of the Monitor, May 29, 2026, paras. 35, 50–52, 57–58.

The application filed June 2 asks the court to approve those fees, terminate the administration charge on the filing of the certificate, discharge the monitor and terminate the proceeding. The draft order filed with it would release the monitor and its affiliates, officers, directors, employees, counsel and agents from claims relating to the proceeding, except any finally determined to have constituted gross negligence or wilful misconduct, per the Interlocutory Application, June 2, 2026, para. 14 and draft order, para. 8.

The July 14 memorandum grounds the fee request in what it calls the "overriding principle of reasonableness," citing Bank of Nova Scotia v. Diemer, the Ontario Court of Appeal's 2014 decision on a receiver's legal fees in a cattle farm receivership. Termination is appropriate, the monitor submits, because a material adverse change has occurred, the applicant seeks no further relief, the stay has expired, BMO has appointed a private receiver, and "the Applicant has acted in good faith and with due diligence," per the Memorandum of Fact and Law of the Monitor, July 14, 2026, paras. 11, 22–23 and Tab 1, para. 2.

The notice on the application put it before the judge presiding in chambers in St. John's on Tuesday, July 21, at 9:30 a.m., with a line added by hand beneath: "To set a date for Application to be heard," per the Interlocutory Application, June 2, 2026, Notice.