On February 4, 2003, Canada-based RexCan Circuits, Inc. filed an Assignment into Bankruptcy. Pricewaterhouse Coopers, Inc. was appointed trustee in bankruptcy. At this time, the trustee is assessing available options for the business, according to a statement on RexCan Circuits' website as of February 15, 2003.
RexCan underwent a restructuring last autumn in a move the company said signalled that it was "shaping up. . . not shipping out."
According to a local newspaper report (The Belville Intelligencer [Ontario, Canada], dated February 6, 2003), RexCan declared bankruptcy under a burden of millions in debt. The newspaper article by Henry Bury reported that on Sunday, "approximately 120 unionized workers overwhelmingly rejected wage and other concessions in a last ditch effort to keep the Belleville manufacturer of printed circuit boards afloat amid a $21 million sea of red ink."
The newspaper went on to say that RexCan Circuits had, for months, accumulated millions of dollars in debt for the company's owner, Japan-based HDK. After the bankruptcy filing, said The Intelligencer, Price Waterhouse Coopers, Inc. padlocked the doors to the 15-year-old business.
According to the newspaper report, a local union official said that the company talked with the union in late January to ask unionized RexCan employees to agree to concessions, including a pay cut and benefit reductions. Workers meeting on February 2 turned down the concessions, thinking that business could go on, the union official reportedly said.
According to The Intelligencer, RexCan Circuits was established as a subsidiary of HDK (Hokuriku Electric Industry) in 1989. RexCan is publicly traded on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, the newspaper said. RexCan made PCBs for the telecommunications industry, selling about 80% of its products into the US, said the newspaper.