Covid 19 coronavirus: New Zealand Office Supplies acquired by NXP

New Zealand Office Supplies has offices in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. Photo / LinkedIn

Stationery distributor New Zealand Office Supplies has been acquired for an undisclosed sum.

The company, which employs 34 staff and has offices in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, was placed into voluntary administration on May 1 by its sole director Michael Manikas and administrators Steven Khov and Kieran Jones of Khov Jones were appointed administrators.

Administrators and NXP, the country's largest supplier of business supplies and cleaning products to the corporate and government sectors, came to an agreement for the business to change hands overnight.

Auckland-based NXP will officially takeover the business, which acquired the exclusive rights for Fuji Xerox paper products last year, early next week.

Joe Taylor, chief executive of NXP. Photo / Supplied

Joe Taylor, chief executive of NXP, said New Zealand Office Supplies was a good fit for the company. He would not disclose how much NXP, which sells 20,000 products including cleaning chemicals and PPE, paid for the company.

"These are incredibly challenging and uncertain times for business and their staff, and we wanted to move quickly to reassure employees that all will have a job available to them and, for company's customers, it will be business as usual," Taylor told the Herald.

NZ Office Supplies staff will be offered new contracts at their same pay rates, and their normal pay levels will resume as part of the acquisition, he said.

The business received $239,006.40 in wage subsidies and its staff had been receiving the minimum weekly payment.

NXP was in a strong financial position and had not applied for the wage subsidy, Taylor said.

"We've been doing a lot of work with the Government in the last six weeks in particular on PPE supplies, face masks and sanitisers - our biggest selling items of late," he said.

NXP has sites in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.

"New Zealand Office Supplies is a great fit for us, because we're very strong in large corporates and large government it really complements our business well as it predominantly services small and medium enterprises around New Zealand."

Taylor said NXP would continue to run New Zealand Office Supplies as it was prior to the acquisition.

Earlier in the week, administrator Steven Khov told the Herald the business was "not as viable as it should have been" prior to Covid-19, but the pandemic had tipped the company over the edge.

It had been impacted by the store closures of its suppliers, Khov said.

"It was viable [before lockdown] but not as profitable as what it should have been."

NZ Office Supplies has more than 2,000 customers around New Zealand.