Tauranga Mad Butcher to close

Tauranga’s Mad Butcher is closing on Thursday. Photo: Google Maps.

Tauranga's Mad Butcher franchisee in 11th Avenue has gone into liquidation – the eighth Mad Butcher franchise to do so in the past two years.

On Monday the owners of the Tauranga store appointed liquidators BDO Tauranga Ltd, which says several months of poor trading and the opening of two supermarkets in Tauranga led to the decision.

The store will close on Thursday evening, unless an urgent buyer can be found.

The closure comes after several attempts to reduce overheads – by reducing floorspace and leasing out part of the building to a liquor outlet, and expanding the range to include vegetables.

Fairfax reports the chairman of the discount butcher chain's owner Veritas Investments, Tim Cook, says he was only informed of the liquidation a short time ago and it was too early to comment.

"We are looking at the various options."

The Tauranga store's failure follows the liquidation of a Mad Butcher store in Silverdale, north Auckland, last month, which collapsed owing more than $200,000.

In July, the original Mad Butcher store in Mangere, Auckland, failed and liquidator Peter Jollands criticised the business model as being in favour of the franchisor.

Veritas responded strongly, however, and said Jollands misunderstood the business model.

Veritas had also taken control of a previously franchised store in Pt Chevalier, Auckland, in August after the owner suffered health issues.

The company reported a $4.6 million loss for the year to June 30, and last month said its bank had extended its support.

It said revenue for the group - which included gourmet supermarket brand Nosh and the Better Bar Company - was likely to fall this year from $56.5m to between $50m and $55m.

Veritas expected to make a profit between $3m and $3.6m this year.

- stuff.co.nz

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1 comment

Well

Posted on 29-10-2016 11:08 | By Capt_Kaveman

if they were not so expensive then they might have survived


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