Pukekohe Mad Butcher placed into liquidation

There have been more than 20 Mad Butcher outlet liquidations. Photo / File

Another casualty in the Mad Butcher franchise.

Green Family Butchers Ltd, trading as Mad Butcher Pukekohe, has been placed into liquidation.

The company was placed into liquidation on Tuesday and Victoria Toon of Corporate Restructuring Ltd was appointed liquidator.

Toon, who has been contacted for comment, is seeking claims from creditors until June 3.

She has not responded to the Herald's request for comment.

Michael Morton, director of Mad Butcher Holdings, has also been contacted for comment.

Mad Butcher Pukekohe is one of a string of Mad Butcher stores that have been liquidated over the past year. It is not yet known if the store closed due to the impacts of Covid-19 or a separate matter.

In November, Mad Butcher Northcote on Auckland's North Shore closed its door for good when its franchise agreement with Mad Butcher Holdings ended and was not extended.

This follows the closure of Mad Butcher stores in Glen Innes and Albany earlier last year after the companies running these were placed into liquidation.

The only remaining Mad Butcher store in Whangarei closed its doors in January last year and its former owner was in the Auckland High Court defending an injunction order by Mad Butcher Holdings following the end of the franchise agreement.

Mad Butcher store numbers have dramatically decreased over the past few years. There have been more than 20 outlet liquidations, of which six franchisees have been liquidated since 2017. The numbers do not include stores that have closed at the end of franchise agreements.

In its heyday, the butcher chain had 40 stores throughout the country. Today, the chain is about half the size.

The liquidator of a string of the liquidated Mad Butcher franchisees told the Herald last year that the franchise's business model was "flawed".

"The business model is flawed, and as such is unsustainable," Peter Jollands of Jollands Callender said in November when asked about the future of the chain.

Jollands said profit from Mad Butcher stores was "insufficient to sustain a business", and that was the reason so many outlets were going under.

"There is no profit, or if there is, it's diminishing."