Seamart in receivership, leaving its suppliers at loss

Seamart on Fanshawe St. Picture / Martin Sykes

The doors are padlocked, furniture sits piled up in the restaurant and contact numbers for the receivers adorn the front doors of well-known Auckland fishmongers Seamart.

The Seamart wholesale site on the corner of Fanshawe St and Market Place and four other companies owned by director Vojislav Krtolica were placed in receivership late last week, leaving suppliers facing hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses.

A sign on the doors directs creditors' inquiries to the receivers, BDO Spicers.

Seamart wholesalers is now trading as Ocean Discovery in the Auckland Fish Market on nearby Jellicoe St, understood also to be owned by Mr Krtolica.

One supplier, Nishin LTD managing director Steven Zhang, said his company was owed more than $60,000 and believed one estimate putting the total owed by Seamart as $600,000 was more likely closer to $1 million.

Mr Zhang said he visited the Mt Albert Seamart on Saturday to sort out a debt of $24,000 owed to Nishin, only to be told the company was in receivership and he would have to get in line behind other creditors.

He claims he is owed a further $37,000 by the Seamart wholesalers on Market Place.

Nishin had dealt with Seamart for the past five years, selling prawns, shrimp and frozen surimi products.

Mr Krtolica, a Yugoslav who has been in New Zealand for 25 years and has owned Seamart for 18, last night refused to answer Herald questions about the closing of his business.

Mr Zhang said he would talk to his lawyer, Ocean Discoveries management and the receivers today.