Goodwill owes $6M after declaring bankruptcy, has $1,300 in bank account

Goodwill Toronto owes $6 million after declaring bankruptcy on Feb. 7, most of which is owed to its former employees.

Goodwill Industries of Toronto, Eastern, Central and Northern Ontario closed 16 Goodwill stores 10 donation centres and two offices in the region due to cash flow problems. The closures, announced abruptly in January, left more than 430 Goodwill employees without work.

In a document attained by CityNews, Goodwill declared bankruptcy with $1,300 in its bank account, $835,308 in assets and $6,011,521 in liabilities.

In the listed property section of the bankruptcy forms Goodwill declared it had $25,000 in used clothing, housewares and other donated items. Their machinery, equipment and plant totaled to $250,000.

The non-profit chain said their furniture and vehicles had zero worth.

Goodwill declared that the various computers inside their headquarters at 350 Progress Ave. were worth $1.

The largest amount that Goodwill owes in liabilities is to a numbered company (1310984 Ontario Inc.) for $101,583.

CEO Keiko Nakamura said back in January that Goodwill had moved to cut costs by reducing overhead and also cutting staff hours, describing it as a “very low-margin operation” that was facing increasing competition.

It requires “mass amounts of staff labour” to produce, sort and separate donated items before they are either recycled or sent into the Goodwill stores, she said.

Nakamura said many people do not realize the amount of work required to process the donations that Goodwill receives.

The non-profit group had operated for more than 80 years in Ontario providing affordable goods and helping people gain access to training and work.