A Calgary communications firm showered in laurels last month for being named among the top 50 fastest-growing technology companies in the country is now seeking protection under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, leaving a trail of creditors in its wake.

Impact Blue, whose CEO boasted last month that the company’s revenue had grown about 6,000 per cent since 1997, has filed a notice in Court of Queen’s Bench in Calgary that it intends to make a proposal to its creditors.

Under the law, a proposal must now be filed by December 1, or the privately held company must obtain an extension.

Founded as an IT company in 1996, Impact Blue moved into the advertising scene in the last two years, purchasing ads on behalf of such blue-chip clients as Enmax Energy, Fairmont Hotels, Talisman and the University of Calgary.

File photo by Shannon Oatway, Business Edge
Impact Blue CEO Ryan McDonald said revenue had grown almost 6,000 per cent since 1997.

However, its creditors include a long list of media firms, television networks and magazines that helped prepare and run the ads, including CTV Television Inc., the National Post,

A-Channel, CanWest Media sales, Avenue Publications and the Calgary Sun. Business Edge is also named among the creditors. Several Impact Blue staff members are also listed.

Impact Blue president and CEO Ryan McDonald could not be reached for comment.

A key client of Impact Blue, Enmax Energy recently awarded the firm all its retail, direct marketing and web communications, including advertising, direct e-mail and website development.

Enmax spokesman Sneh Seetal said the energy company isn’t prepared to comment on the bankruptcy proceedings, “other than to say it’s not really going to impact on our marketing communications activity, because we do have another supplier that we work with as well, and they’ll be able to continue to provide us with that sort of counsel.”

Seetal said Enmax will await Impact Blue’s next move before making any further moves. “We’re pretty content with our current supplier. They’ve been doing most of our media buying to date,” she said.

“We’re completely paid up and in good standing with Impact Blue as a supplier, so there’s nothing outstanding on our front with them.”

This was the second year in a row that Impact Blue, which maintains offices in Calgary, Houston and Fredericton, has made the Deloitte & Touche Canadian Technology Fast 50 Awards list, ranking Canada’s fastest-growing firms from a variety of technology sectors based on the highest rates of revenue growth from 1998 to 2002.

Richter, Allan and Taylor of Calgary has agreed to act as trustee in the proceedings.