Goodwill CEO closed GTA stores because of “cash flow crisis”

In a statement issued Sunday afternoon, Goodwill Industries CEO Keiko Nakamura called the closures “a fluid situation” and says the company will explore “a variety of options to continue its decades-long mission”. Reportedly, the union and organization’s collective agreement requires Goodwill to give workers 30 to 60 days notice before potential store closures. “We need to get these stores open and our members back on the job”.

“We were shocked to find out”, said Shelley White, president of the United Way of Peel Region, which she said recently partnered with Goodwill to help distribute three tonnes of donated items to Syrian refugees.

The union local asked the Ontario Labour Relations Board for Goodwill’s financial records for the past year, which Ellickson said they expect to receive next week. Great Lakes operations employ about 600 people, Quintyn said.

She did not comment on her future at the organization.

While Goodwill’s board stepped down just before the stores closed, Ms. Nakamura said she had “clear instructions” to continue as CEO.

Nakamura is the former CEO of the Toronto Community Housing Corporation. “She was innovative, she made unbelievable strides on worker health and safety, on managing inventory, on pricing policies, on store renovation”, Ms. Milton said.

Employees told CBC News that their manager usually arrives at the store first to unlock it, but when they arrived today no one was there.

In 2014, Goodwill Industries of Toronto had total revenues of $28 million, though retail sales were down more than $2 million from the year before.

She said she intends examine all possible solutions for Goodwill’s woes but could not say when or if the Toronto and southern Ontario locations would reopen. Michele Walker, national retail operations manager for Salvation Army Thrift stores in Canada, said its stores in Central Ontario have seen “moderate revenue growth” in the past few years, even in the Toronto area.

Goodwill Toronto, which sells the clothing and goods it collects to fund programs for people with learning and physical disabilities, announced it was closing all 16 of its stores, throwing some 450 people out of work.

She wouldn’t answer repeated questions about whether she was still getting paid, while her organization’s workers wondered where their next paycheques would come from.