Forest Gold Honey in liquidation
A West Coast honey producer owes over $1 million after weaker than anticipated sales and failing to find trained staff.
Forest Gold Honey is insolvent and has voluntarily entered liquidation, according to a report published by Christchurch liquidator Brenton Hunt on December 3.
Based in the Gloriavale community in Haupriri, about an hour east of Greymouth on the West Coast, the company survived nine years before shareholders agreed to liquidate.
The company director is Mark Christian, son of Gloriavale’s founder, the late Hopeful Christian.
It ceased trading in October, with one customer falling outside of credit terms also a contributing factor to the insolvency, Hunt’s report said.
There were funds in the company bank account at liquidation – about $500,000 – and a mix of both processed and raw material to be sold. But how much that would generate was yet to be verified, and Hunt estimated there would not be enough money to pay creditors.
The majority of plant and equipment was leased from a related party company, he said.
There were no known preferential creditors, but unsecured creditors were owed an estimated $1.1m.
Creditors included Inland Revenue, Christian Partners (also linked to Gloriavale), New Zealand Sugar Co, and Mountain Gold Honey, a honey producer just North of Masterton.