A man is in hospital in a serious condition after the reported shooting that took place late last night.
Two hospitality outlets in New Zealand’s biggest shopping centre chain have failed with a shooting blamed for keeping terrified customers away from one of the food and beverage businesses.
Pritesh Patel, of Auckland insolvency specialists Patel & Co, is liquidating the businesses which traded from Westfield’s at Manukau and StLukes. The latter properties are 51 per cent owned by ASX listed Scentre and 49 per cent by the Singaporean government’s property investment fund.
The two companies in liquidation are:
AVS Investments 108, trading as Republic Bar & Kitchen Manukau in Scentre’s Westfield Manukau. That company is in liquidation from January 27;
Ara Cafe, trading as Presshouse Coffee in Westfield St Lukes, in liquidation on February 8.
Patel said gun violence was one of a number of reasons why Republic customers stayed away from the Manukau bar.
“A recent shooting in the vicinity of the premises discouraged customers from patronising the business,” he wrote in his first report on Republic, issued on February 3.
In 2019, the Heraldreported how police were investigating a bar shooting which left a man with life-threatening injuries.
Crowd-goers at a charity concert at the Republic Bar in August of that year were left in horror after a person was shot. The man was tended to by paramedics, before being rushed to hospital in a critical condition.
Armed police guard Republic Bar after the shooting in 2019. Photo / Michael Craig
Simon Bridges, Auckland Business Chamber chief executive, said a recent survey had revealed crime was the single biggest concern for members.
Although staffing shortages and rising costs were of concern, crime was top of people’s minds, with so many outlets hit by ram raids and robberies.
Patel said further violence had occurred in the Manukau area near Republic since 2019, reducing patronage at the bar.
But there were many other factors too.
The main reason for the company’s insolvency was poor cash flow and high outgoings aggravated by staffing issues, the pandemic drastically cutting trade, cost of goods going up and the unavailability of products, Patel wrote.
Liquor license hours of trading had been cut and that had curtailed the bar’s trade significantly.
Constant equipment breakdowns were also cited, along with the bar being unable to use the front forecourt/outdoor area due to water leakages.
Many workers in the Manukau precinct now worked from home and no longer came to the bar, he said.
Creditors are DB Breweries, Richo Finance, BOC of Christchurch, Westpac New Zealand, Music Ltd, Coca-Cola Amatil (NZ), Total POS Rentals, Nisbit New Zealand, Hancocks Wine Spirit and Beer Merchants, Metcash Trading and Burns & Ferrell.
Westpac has a general security agreement attached to its PPSR which is an advance of a loan, Patel said.
That bank is listed as being owed $320,000.
DB owns all the beer dispensing systems and Richo Finance has electronic items on lease terms.
POS Rentals leases point-of-sale systems to the bar.
But Techcraft Plumbing, Auckland Council and many others were cited in the creditors’ list.
A $1.1m net deficit is envisaged. Westfield is owed $450,000 in rent, and Inland Revenue about $60,000 in unpaid GST and PAYE taxes.
Goodwood Heights’ Shaneel Kumar Sudhakar is the sole director and owner of the Republic business. Patel said that person had acted responsibly and appointed a liquidator before the liabilities of the company further increased.
In the second Westfield mall liquidation Patel is handling, Presshouse cafe failed due to the pandemic and other issues. Mount Roskills Amit Pala is the sole director and shareholder. The business was only incorporated in March 2019 which was exactly a year before the first lockdown.
The cafe sold coffee, drinks and food from St Luke’s but its license to operate was terminated in December by the franchise holder for nonpayment of lease and other claims like royalty and marketing fees, Patel said.
Before the termination, Presshouse was already struggling with the pandemic, and in a “dire financial position”.
Again, Coca-Cola Amatil (NZ) appeared on the list of creditors along with Accident Compensation Corporation, Inland Revenue, two employees, Auckland Council, Food Brands Group, Outside In and others.
The deficit before the costs of liquidation are estimated to be $68,500. Holiday pay and wages of $18,500 are owed and a debt of $30,000 to IRD is cited in the first report. Assets are yet to be confirmed.
Questions were put to Scentre about the liquidation but no reply has been received yet.
“We’re seeing a lot of these liquidations in malls. The reasons are the pandemic, staffing issues, liquidity and food costs and just a real struggle for many.”
“This is just the start now. We will see a lot of hospo businesses falling over. The reason is after the pandemic, they went back into business. But they are facing higher food costs. The minimum wage rising is a killer blow. Lack of staff is another compounding factor,” he said.
