Nido builder liquidators ousted, creditors vote in replacement

Creditors owed money for working on New Zealand's largest homeware retail outlet have ousted the liquidators of the business and had a new liquidator appointed.

Greg Sherriff of Waterstone Insolvency is now the liquidator of Vijay Holdings which built the 2.7ha Nido store in Henderson and was finishing a 650-space carpark.

Sherriff said this morning: "The pressure is now on to repay the faith that creditors have expressed in me."

On November 6, Daran Nair and Heiko Draht of Greenlane Chartered Accountants were appointed Vijay liquidators at the request of shareholders.

Vinod Kumar conceived of and developed the vast new store which only opened in early June and is still trading but discounting stock substantially.

Kumar was a director of Vijay and said when it went into liquidation: said "The construction company has existed for 22 years and done $122 million of work. It's so disappointing for us."

Creditors objected to the previous liquidators. A creditors' meeting was held yesterday.

Separately, Magsons Hardware trading as Nido has also gone into receivership. Kara Johnstone and Conor McElhinney of McGrathNicol were appointed to run the giant Henderson store that opened on June 1 with 100 showrooms and a 2.7ha footprint, offering everything from artificial flowers to couches.

Kumar was also a director of that business.

Johnstone and McElhinney said a stock discounting sale would be held. That is now under way.