{"id":468114,"date":"2026-02-11T13:44:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T13:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/468114\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T13:44:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T13:44:09","slug":"toys-r-us-filing-leaves-a-slew-of-creditors-in-its-wake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/468114\/","title":{"rendered":"Toys \u201cR\u201d Us filing leaves a slew of creditors in its wake"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Shoppers pass a permanently closed Toys “R” Us store in Toronto, on Feb. 4.Sammy Kogan\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

At the beginning of this year, Marlon McPherson celebrated the 10th anniversary of his company, a Toronto-based liquidator that works with major retailers to clear out stores and facilities when they shut down. But the celebration was soon followed by a less auspicious milestone: the first time the company has been left holding a substantial unpaid bill, which ran to roughly $200,000.<\/p>\n

Mr. McPherson\u2019s firm, Michaels Global Trading, is just one of hundreds of companies owed money by insolvent retailer Toys \u201cR\u201d Us (Canada) Ltd., which was granted court protection from its creditors last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cFinancially we\u2019re good, but it does take a big hit to our cash flow,\u201d Mr. McPherson said.<\/p>\n

His experience is indicative of the wider reverberations that occur when a national retailer enters restructuring proceedings.<\/p>\n

Toys \u201cR\u201d Us has closed about 50 stores over the past year, and is looking to either sell the remaining business to new owners, or attract an investor to refinance the operations. Otherwise, it will be forced to liquidate the chain, which now comprises 22 Toys \u201cR\u201d Us and Babies \u201cR\u201d Us stores across Canada, roughly half of them in Ontario.<\/p>\n

Multiple Toys \u201cR\u201d Us locations closing, landlords say they are owed unpaid rent<\/a><\/p>\n

It is not uncommon in such cases for many creditors \u2013 who fall in line behind a company\u2019s major secured lenders \u2013 to be paid little, or none, of what they are owed.<\/p>\n

The list of creditors to Toys \u201cR\u201d Us includes some major names: according to court documents, the company owes $6.7-million to Lego Canada Inc., more than $11-million to companies in Canada and China connected to Mattel Inc., $3.7-million to a Hong Kong division of Canadian toy and entertainment company Spin Master Corp., and $2.2-million to Hasbro Canada Corp. The Florida company Jazwares LLC, known for its popular line of Squishmallows plush toys, is owed $2.6-million.<\/p>\n

The chain has run into financial difficulties before. Its U.S. parent company Toys \u201cR\u201d Us Inc. filed for bankruptcy in 2017 and liquidated the U.S. and British stores. The Canadian chain survived after being sold to Toronto-based Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. in 2018, for $300-million.<\/p>\n

But just three years later, Fairfax sold the struggling operations to family-owned Putman Investments Inc. As the Ancaster, Ont.-based firm sought to stabilize the business, Toys \u201cR\u201d Us cut jobs and closed underperforming stores, shuttering a total of 59 locations since the deal. The company also built indoor playgrounds, called Playlab, in its stores in an effort to make up for falling sales.<\/p>\n

\u201cPersistent inflation, rising labour and occupancy costs, post-pandemic supply chain disruptions, and a structural shift toward e-commerce have materially weakened the performance of traditional bricks and mortar retailers,\u201d Neil Taylor, the retailer\u2019s recently-appointed chief restructuring officer, stated in an affidavit on Feb. 2.<\/p>\n

Landlord sues Toys \u201cR\u201d Us Canada over claim of unpaid rent at Toronto location<\/a><\/p>\n

Toys \u201cR\u201d Us Canada recorded a net loss of $54.7-million in 2024, and lost a further $170.4-million in the 10 months ended Nov. 29, 2025.<\/p>\n

As it ran out of cash to fund the operations, Toys \u201cR\u201d Us Canada halted payments to its toy vendors and other product suppliers, and also stopped paying rent on some stores that it vacated, but which still have active leases.<\/p>\n

A number of suppliers and landlords had launched lawsuits against Toys \u201cR\u201d Us Canada before the creditor-protection proceedings, mostly for breaching leases or breach of contract. They include landlords such as RioCan Holdings affiliate RioTrin Properties, SmartREIT, Calloway Real Estate Investment Trust Inc. and Confederation Park Shopping Centres Ltd., according to court documents.<\/p>\n

Major commercial landlords such as Cadillac Fairview Corp. Ltd., Oxford Properties, Ivanhoe Cambridge Inc. and Primaris Management Inc. are also listed among its creditors. <\/p>\n

Last August, Everest Toys, which was founded by Putman Investments owner Doug Putman\u2019s father, was placed into receivership<\/a>. Everest is also listed among the creditors of Toys \u201cR\u201d Us Canada, with Everest Wholesale owed nearly $16-million and a related numbered company owed $1.6-million.<\/p>\n

Toys \u201cR\u201d Us Canada files for creditor protection<\/a><\/p>\n

Mr. McPherson\u2019s work with Toys \u201cR\u201d Us began last October, when his company cleared out three floors of office furniture from its distribution centre in Concord, Ont.<\/p>\n

After that job, the retailer contracted Michaels Global Trading to clear out the adjoining warehouse just before Christmas \u2013 auctioning off racking and warehouse equipment such as forklifts. The company also cleared out two stores in Alberta and one in Southern Ontario that Toys \u201cR\u201d Us shut down, but the deposits it was paid by the retailer fall far short of the cost of the work it performed. Michaels Global paid all of the subcontractors who worked on the project.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have to take it with a grain of salt, because we\u2019ve lasted this long, survived COVID. Business owners eventually are going to get burned some way or another,\u201d Mr. McPherson said, adding that he considers it a kind of badge of honour. \u201cIt sounds crazy,\u201d he said with a laugh.<\/p>\n

But he does not take the loss lightly, and says it will change the way he does business. Mr. McPherson is considering implementing a stricter deposit structure with clients in future, and paying more attention to signals that a client in financial distress may be unable to fulfill their end of the contract.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re probably not going to be paid. But it\u2019s a lesson,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve learned a lot over the last three to four months.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Shoppers pass a permanently closed Toys “R” Us store in Toronto, on Feb.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":468115,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,45,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-468114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468114\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}