Satori's parent company Axiom International is selling the retailer after going bust. Photo / Kenny Rodger
The directors of upmarket menswear retailer Satori have been forced to put the business up for sale after its parent company went bust.
Axiom International went into liquidation on December 19 owing more than $2.2 million to creditors.
Yesterday liquidator Peter Chatfield said Satori itself was not in
liquidation but confirmed it had been put on the market in a bid to claw back money to Axiom.
"At this time it is not [in liquidation]. But that is not to say a creditor may force it into liquidation."
Axiom was an importer of clothing and accessories, the majority of which were sold via Satori's stores.
It is 60 per cent owned by Bob Nelson, a further 20 per cent owned by his wife Sandra and another 20 per cent owned by Mark Yaxley.
Bob Nelson and Yaxley are the directors of both Satori and Axiom.
According to Chatfield's first report they put the demise of the business down to the failure of an associate Australian retail company (set up two years ago), the decline in Australian and New Zealand sales over the last six months and the inability of the company to borrow more money to meet payments due for its 2009 orders.
"All of the above factors created a cashflow deficit causing the company's inability to service its commitments," the report stated.
Of the $2.25 million it owes, $1.15 million is a secured loan from the ANZ National Bank.
The Inland Revenue is also owed $33,562.
Chatfield said preferential creditors were likely to be paid but it was "most unlikely" that a dividend would be paid to unsecured creditors.
Axiom was set up in 1976 while Satori Retail was formed in 1997. According to Satori's website it has three stores in New Zealand - two in Auckland in Chancery and Newmarket and a Wellington store.
The firm also operates a head office out of Glenfield on the North Shore.
