Billionaire Graeme Hart and his son Harry bought Hansells Food Group for $15 million in their creation of a new local food empire.
Hansells' management started looking for a buyer in October last year and entered into a sale and purchase agreement on June 1 to sell the assets and liabilities for $15m, financial statements lodged with the Companies Office show. The Auckland-based company had accumulated losses of $66.5m by March 31 and was trading with negative equity of $28.4m.
The assets held for sale were valued at $39.9m as at March 31, including $14.1m of property, plant and equipment, $10.8m of inventories and $11.4m in receivables. The firm also came with $26.5m of liabilities, of which $5.8m was a loan from Scottish Pacific, $7.4m was in trade payables, and $5.2m were from related party payables. Discontinued businesses generated a positive operating cash flow of $2.4m in the year.
The food ingredients business was rolled into Water & Wild, an entity set up by the Harts in three separate deals to buy Hubbard Foods and the Gregg's sauce unit. Water & Wild is fronted by Harry Hart, who owns 33 per cent of the ultimate parent, and backed by Graeme Hart with 67 per cent.
Hansells has been a perennial underperformer, repeatedly filing accounts tagged by its auditor. The firm saw revenue drop to just $96m in the March 2018 year from $188m in 2013.
