The Blue Basket is unplugged. The platform confirmed, the same day, that it was ending its activities on Wednesday. The revenues were not sufficient to ensure the survival of the platform intended for Quebec traders.
Le Panier Bleu would have needed more investments to develop. The company’s shareholders, of which the Quebec government is a part through Investissement Québec, came to the conclusion that the operation would have been too costly, explains the Minister of the Economy and Energy, Pierre Fitzgibbon, in interview.
It would have been necessary to “probably” inject another $20 million into the company, according to estimates mentioned by the minister. “It’s still a lot of money. »
Le Panier Bleu welcomed far fewer merchants than initially desired. The platform had 600 registered merchants. In October 2022, the former boss, Alain Dumas, affirmed that the organization had set itself the objective of welcoming around 1,000 merchants by the end of 2023.
Le Panier Bleu has not managed to establish itself in the consumption habits of Quebecers. Only 7% of the province’s online transactions were made on the platform in 2022, according to the most recent NETendances survey.
In a context of high interest rates and a slowdown in the retail sector, the adventure became less attractive for private sector shareholders, who include Desjardins Group, the FTQ Solidarity Fund and the cloud commerce specialist Lightspeed .
In government, the budgetary context is tighter while the Legault government foresees a higher deficit than anticipated in the next budget which will be unveiled on March 12.
The context thus forces the Ministry of Finance to make choices. “Things that work less well will be eliminated and money will be put into things that work better. […] [Pour Le Panier Bleu]we said to ourselves perhaps that the money would be better invested elsewhere,” said Minister Fitzgibbon.
Quebec will thus lose $22 million in the adventure. The government had injected $4 million before the privatization of Panier Bleu in June 2022. Through Investissement Québec, another $12 million was invested to launch the company in partnership with other shareholders.
The Legault government will grant another $6 million to close the company “in an orderly manner”. “We think it will probably cost a little less than that,” specifies the minister.
The money will be used in particular to pay severance pay for the 39 employees who will lose their jobs, to reimburse undelivered orders, and to pay suppliers, in particular. “We’re going to do this the clean way. It will not be a bankruptcy,” he assures.
The government is the only shareholder to advance funds to ensure “this orderly closure”, replies the minister. “I decided to do it like this. The Blue Basket, everyone [les actionnaires] believed in it, but it was a government initiative. […] Desjardins and the Solidarity Fund, they helped us. »