Investors in the failed Lake Diefenbaker Potato Corporation are threatening legal action after their bid to regain control of the bankrupt company’s main assets was rejected.
The LDPC’s main facility, a fresh pack facility, has been taken over by another party.
“There’s just plain anger in the streets over this,” said Bill Sheppard, the former president of the LDPC and one of the players behind the bid to restart the potato growing and bagging operation.
“We’re receiving legal advice and (will) probably start a lawsuit to stop all of this nonsense.”
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Bankruptcy trustee Ian Schoefield verified that the fresh pack plant, which also includes the foundation of a flaking plant, will be taken over by another group.
“We have an arrangement in place,” said Schoefield. He would not reveal any details.
Mark Langefeld, a Montana investor who raised money for the LDPC and was its chief executive officer, headed up the bid by local growers and investors to restart the potato operation after it went bankrupt in the spring.
But Lucky Lake, Sask., area economic development officer Terry Sieffert said the new company would have been much different than the old company.
It would have a new board of directors, and Langefeld would not be the CEO. People with experience in the potato industry would be brought in to run the company, Sieffert said.
Local people thought the new bid had a good chance of succeeding. But then Schoefield announced that most of the LDPC’s assets will be sold Sept. 21 by auction.
Rumors abound
The area is rife with rumors that the LDPC’s fresh pack facility has been sold to an Alberta company.
But the rumors are hard to substantiate. One Alberta company whom some said had bought the fresh pack plant verified that it had made an offer for the facility, but said it had heard nothing back from the trustee.
Grant McNeill, a potato farmer, former board member of the LDPC and one of the backers of Langefeld’s bid, said he was disappointed to hear their new bid had been rejected.
“We were going to try to keep this thing going,” said McNeill.
But if their bid has been rejected “it’s just going to be individual farmers growing and we’ll all do our own little things and there’s not going to be nearly the amount of work there would have been if there was something like we had last year.”
