Tauranga online homeware retailer Inspiry in liquidation and owes millions

BDO Tauranga liquidators are dealing with the liquidation process for failed business Inspiry Management Ltd. Photo / Sandra Conchie

A Tauranga online business owing more than $2 million to unsecured creditors has been placed into liquidation and receivers have been appointed.

Homeware and furniture retailer Inspiry Management Ltd was placed into liquidation on September 20 under a special resolution passed by the two shareholders.

The company was founded in April 2018.

On September 28, receivers were also appointed by one of the secured creditors who had a loan agreement with the company.

NZ Companies Office documents show Paul Manning and Thomas Rodewald from BDO Tauranga were appointed liquidators on September 20.

The total owed to creditors was not yet known, but a statement of affairs attached to the liquidators' first report stated $2,131,989 was owed to unsecured creditors.

This included $1.1m of about 2200 customer payments received in advance, a $472,826 shareholder loan, and $391,712 from trade creditors.

Five secured creditors are also owed a total of $237,360.

Preferential creditors, which must be paid first, are owed a total of $62,081. Of this, $50,768 of that is PAYE and GST owed to IRD and $11,314 for staff wages and gross holiday pay.

The total value of the company's stock, plant and equipment has not yet been disclosed, while the estimated value of vehicles was listed as $32,000.

Bank account assets were stated as nil.

BDO Tauranga premises on level one of a commercial hub in Cameron Rd. Photo / Sandra Conchie

In their first report, Manning and Rodewald said it was "too early to reliably estimate" what funds would be available for preferential and unsecured creditors.

"It is not practical to estimate the date of completion of the liquidation at this stage. Our subsequent six monthly reports to creditors will, when appropriate, advise of an estimated completion date," they said.

"We do not consider that a meeting of creditors should be held because there are insufficient assets to meet the cost of holding such a meeting.

"And there are limited prospects of funds being available for payment of a dividend to creditors other than to those who hold specific security or have a preferential claim."

Manning and Rodewald also said the director of the company advised that "the reason for the business failure was due to trading losses and cashflow issues".

Manning told the Bay of Plenty Times the back end of the company's website was closed from the start of the liquidation, meaning it could not accept orders and payments could not be processed from September 20.

However, it took a few days to arrange for a banner to be put on the front end of the website to advise of the liquidation, he said.

The shut-off for website payments was instigated on September 17 and the shopping cart was also disabled on that date.

The Australian-based receiver is Dominic Calabretta from Mackay Goodwin, whose first report is due on December 5.