Investing in technology
Live Ship Ltd. seeking investors through community economic development fund
A North Sydney startup has until the end of the month to raise capital it requires to speed up the process of acquiring containers to ship the live seafood product of its customers overseas.
Live Ship Ltd. received approval this week from the Nova Scotia Securities Commission to use a community economic development investment fund program to raise money from Nova Scotian investors.
A CEDIF allows a company to expand facilities and operations to meet demand of its products.
The minimum investment is $1,000 to a maximum of $30,000. It is a five-year investment and further rebates are available in future years. The ceiling for a CEDIF is $3 million.
Because the Live Ship CEDIF is eligible through a registered retirement savings plan, investing in the company must meet the RRSP deadline of March 1 for the 2017 tax year.
Investments in a Live Ship CEDIF are eligible for a 35 per cent non-refundable provincial income tax credit.
Live Ship owner Jim Gillis said his company has been busy getting the word out about his company through information sessions across the province and advertisements in newspapers.
“The tax credits are for 2017 so if you’re doing it through an RRSP, it has to be done by the end of February,” he said.
“When we were approved we only had a couple of weeks to jam her in but we did a booth at the Halifax boat show that was very successful.” Gillis and his brother Allan Gillis, a co-owner in the company, have secured a five-year exclusive deal with BioNovations, an Antigonish-based company that is building a new generation of patented shipping containers.
BioNovations’ new multipurpose Traystor crate can be used on fishing vessels, in purging systems, as a live holding system, or set up as distribution centres.
The Gillis brothers have a 50 per cent stake in BioNovations, and their business partner Joe Boudreau owns the other 50 per cent.
The sea containers being built for Live Ship each cost approximately $300,000 and hold up to 11,300 kilograms or 25,000 pounds of product.
Jim Gillis said they’ve received financial assistance from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency and loans from financial institutions as well.
“This is our fourth year probably at it and we’re just starting to get off the ground now. We’re going to order the containers this winter,” he said.
“We’re going to start with two (containers) but, I mean, we would need many, many containers to do what we want to do because there’s a lot of lobster that gets shipped by airplane now and that’s our competition — the airlines.”
Last month, the Swiss government announced a ban on the practice of transporting live lobsters packed in ice into the country, instead requiring shippers to carry the product in a container that mirrors the lobster’s natural environment.
Switzerland also banned the boiling of lobster live without stunning it first. The new regulations come into effect on March 1.
That bodes well for the new technology being marketed by Gillis, as more countries consider changing policies to make the treatment of animals in the food chain more humane.
“(Switzerland) is saying you cannot ship a lobster into our country in a box because it’s suffocating and can’t get any air to live. Our system solves that problem,” he said.
The containers will be shipped by road, rail and sea. The transportation system involves state-of-the-art technology with environmental controls on air and water temperature to lessen product stress, extend healthy lifespan and reduce the shipping mortality rate, said Gillis.
Live Ship hopes to begin shipping its first containers in the spring, he added.
In the meantime, the company will host two more investor sessions next week in Cape Breton.
On Monday, Live Ship will host a session at the Cambridge Suites Hotel in Sydney at 7 p.m. A second meeting will take place at the Emera Centre Northside in North Sydney on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
“(Switzerland) is saying you cannot ship a lobster into our country in a box because it’s suffocating and can’t get any air to live. Our system solves that problem.”
Live Ship owner Jim Gillis