The parent company of several fine-dining restaurants located in iconic Australian locations has collapsed with $23 million in debt and more than 200 jobs at risk.
Good Group Australia, owner of high-end meat chain Botswana Butchery and several Asian outlets, announced last month that it had entered voluntary administration.
The famous Botswana Butchery sold steaks for up to $500 a piece in restaurants in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra.
Those three restaurants employ 200 people and all branches are still operating.
However, three other major businesses in the group – White and Wong’s in Sydney’s Martin Place and Melbourne’s Chadstone, and Wong Baby in Melbourne’s Chapel St – have ceased trading.
Good Group Australia, owner of high-end teak chain Botswana Butchery (pictured), went into voluntary administration last month.
A report sent to creditors this week, obtained by News.com.au, revealed the group owed about $23 million to BDO Australia’s Andrew Sallway and Duncan Clubb, appointed to oversee its seven businesses.
Good Group owes $9.7 million to the Commonwealth Bank in secured debt and $4.5 million to other creditors, including landlords, suppliers and its employees.
His debt to the owners alone amounts to 1.81 million dollars. The owner of the company’s Melbourne headquarters evicted the group for non-payment of rent.
The owner is expected to recover some money through surety bonds.
Another $9.3 million is owed in intercompany loans.
Good Group’s accumulated debt to staff is one of its biggest bills: $523,804 for unpaid annual leave and long service leave entitlements.
The workers are also owed $92,000 in unpaid retirement.
Other companies linked to Good Group lent $9.3 million in loans to related parties.
The company also owes around $3.6 million in taxes, but the administrators did not include that debt in the total amount as the Australian Taxation Office has not yet submitted any evidence of its debt claims.
The famous Botswana butcher shop sold steaks for up to $500 a piece in restaurants in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra.
The administrator’s report noted that Good Group’s directors, all based in New Zealand, had not responded to its requests for information.
BDO Australia will seek to report the directors to the financial regulator, ASIC.
Sallway and Clubb believe the group has been unable to pay its debts since last September.
In terms of assets, the restaurants contained food and alcohol worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The Canberra Botswana butcher shop, which only opened in January, had $19,327 worth of food and $67,236 worth of drinks.
The value of the products in its Sydney and Melbourne restaurants was even higher.
The Melbourne steakhouse had $58,906 worth of food and $168,493 worth of drinks.
The Sydney restaurant had food estimated at around $28,701 during an inventory, while its alcohol products totaled $119,181.
However, Messrs Sallway and Clubb noted that “the majority of food stocks were perishable and would therefore be of very limited value in a liquidation scenario”.
While the Botswana Butchery restaurants remain open, they have racked up operating losses totaling $207,000.
The administrators recommended that the group be placed into liquidation.
The report found that, before their closure, White and Wongs and Wong Baby Chapel were also trading at a loss since they opened with money from the New Zealand group keeping them afloat.
The owner of Botswana Butchery has closed restaurants White and Wong’s in Sydney’s Martin Place and Melbourne’s Chadstone, and Wong Baby in Melbourne’s Chapel St.
“The premises have not stopped being profitable since their opening,” say the administrators.
‘The group owes $9.3 million in intercompany loans to New Zealand entities. The group has relied on New Zealand entities to fund daily operations and trading losses.’
Sallway and Clubb determined the hotel group’s launch in Australia was poorly timed as it “coincided” with the Covid pandemic.
The subsequent cost of living crisis sealed the fate of the group, whose operating costs increased by 10 percent each month.
