Nubiotics director part of 2011 company collapse

Trevor Lock's companies collapsed in 2011 and last year. Photo / Greg Bowker

The man behind a failed infant milk formula and Manuka honey exporting business that has drawn the attention of the Serious Fraud Office had presided over a similar failed business.

Waikato man Trevor Lock, 54, who had billed himself as the "father of colostrum", is the sole director of Nubiotics which collapsed last year. Receivers McDonald Vague said in reports the company owed more than $1 million with negligible assets to satisfy creditors.

Liquidator Jared Booth said in his reports a claimed $5.1m of accounts receivable - used as security to secure a loan from Waikawau Finance - had been overstated.

The amount had been listed as an asset in company accounts but investigations revealed nothing was found to be recoverable.

Creditors of Nubiotics complained to the SFO, who have confirmed an investigation is ongoing, over repeated claims said to have been made by Lock that large offshore orders - notably from China, India and Russia - were imminent that would settle outstanding debts.

Lock did not return calls, and his residence is unknown after McDonald Vague forced the sale of his Morrinsville home to claw back funds for creditors.

Herald investigations have revealed a similar Lock company, Functional Nutraceuticals, also collapsed in 2011.

Liquidator Grant Reynolds, of Reynolds & Associates, said in reports Functional Nutraceuticals owed $602,375 but less than $10,000 could be realised from assets sales and GST refunds.

The company was said in reports to have been set up in 2001 to export colostrum, but had later moved to supply Manuka honey and oil to markets in China and Russia.

Reynolds said in reports Lock had "explained that the company had sales orders to export honey and that if those orders could be completed then the income derived would enable all company creditors to be paid and that the liquidation could be terminated."

The claims came to nought, Reynolds said: "Those orders have not eventuated as first anticipated."