A new Pop-Up Globe that is under construction at the Ellerslie Race Course.
Two more companies that were part of the now-failed Shakespearean Australasian theatre business Pop-Up Globe have been put into liquidation in a $720,000 failure.
Pop-Up Globe Auckland and Pop-up Globe International are now in the hands of Gareth Hoole and Clive Bish of Ecovis KGA after shareholders and directors MilesLattimer-Gregory and Tobias Grant made that move.
The world's first full-scale temporary working replica of Shakespeare's second Globe was created from scratch here to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the Bard's death.
It set out to rediscover what the experience of Shakespeare's audiences would have been like at the second Globe, with elaborate Jacobean costumes, props and special effects.
In March, the Herald reported how Pop-up Globe's two main trading companies were in liquidation and advice was being sought on two remaining companies. Pop-Up Globe Melbourne 1 and Pop-Up Globe Foundation were already with liquidators before the latest move.
Miles Gregory is a former regional producer for Globe London. Photo / Supplied
The change spells further bad news for creditors of the businesses which went from the high-point of selling more than 750,000 tickets to accumulating debts of $720,000.
"A victim of Covid-19's wrecking ball," is how the two men involved in the theatre business described its demise, saying the pandemic killed their theatrical venture, built from scaffolding and most recently in the Auckland Racing Club's Ellerslie carpark at 100 Ascot Ave.
More than 750,000 tickets had been sold in the years it ran, they said.
Liquidators have given a dire outlook for creditors.
"We're gutted that it's come to this," Gregory and Grant said in March when the first two businesses went into liquidation.
Pop-Up Globe creditors are not smiling. Photo / Sylvie Whinray
Gregory, a former regional producer for Globe London, had the dream and founded the theatre in New Zealand. Grant was the executive producer. Both men were directors of the company in liquidation, The Pop-Up Globe Foundation.
Liquidators at Ecovis KGA said in March one of the Pop-Up Globe businesses had a $727,719 shortfall.
The men said their initial optimism was unfounded.
"We hoped to weather the Covid storm and come back stronger than ever, but for us the timing couldn't have been worse and sadly we haven't been able to find a way through," Gregory and Grant said in a joint statement.
The first liquidators' report showed creditors include ANZ, Inland Revenue and scaffolding specialists Camelspace, Bunnings, CSL Container Hire, Elephant Publicity, Ellerslie Event Centre, Eventfinda, iSite, Mediaworks, director and founder Miles Gregory, Phantom Billstickers, Portacom, SEA Containers, Spark and Superloo Sanitation.
Nicholson Print, Kenderdine Electrical, Just Water, James Bell Accounting, Perceptual Engineering, Raw Vision, The Canvas Company, Dominion Law, APRA New Zealand and AON Insurance New Zealand are other creditors.
The company had cash-flow difficulties because it was unable to trade through pandemic lockdowns. Those cash-flow constraints prevented it from paying debts as they fell due.
Assets are the replica Globe theatre at Ellerslie on land which is leased, office equipment, costumes, props and related theatre equipment, they said.
Secured creditors are owed $384,000, preferential creditors $329,000 and unsecured creditors about $319,000, according to the first statement of financial position.
Assets are an overdrawn cash bank account at -$150,000, fixed assets of $453,000 which include the theatre and receivables of $3000, giving a total asset balance of just $309,079 - well short of the liabilities, indicating a possible substantial shortfall.
