Olivado investor Alan Mountfort says the bullet wound in his back from the attack on him in Nairobi left more than physical scars. Photo / Sarah Ivey

Olivado investor Alan Mountfort says the bullet wound in his back from the attack on him in Nairobi left more than physical scars. Photo / Sarah Ivey

Driving through Nairobi traffic with blood pouring from a gunshot wound in his back is not how Alan Mountfort ever saw it playing out when he answered an ad to invest in an olive grove.

It was February 2008, and the Auckland chemical engineer was in Kenya working for Olivado, the avocado oil venture he and a clutch of other New Zealand investors had built up over the previous eight years.

Now in receivership with debts of $5 million, Olivado is at the centre of a bitter dispute between its founder and main financier. And there has literally been blood on the floor.

Back in 2000, with thoughts of making specialty olive oil, Chris Nathan, a chef by trade, advertised in the Herald for like-minded folk to invest in his Kerikeri operation.

But olive-oil ventures were 10-a-penny and the group looked for a point of difference. They were soon developing award-winning avocado-oil products.

The company grew to the point of needing additional capital.

Enter Switzerland-based expatriate Gary Hannam - a movie and television producer known for titles such as The World's Fastest Indian - as Olivado's major backer. Over time Hannam became heavily involved in the business.

The New Zealand avocado crop can be unreliable and Olivado became constrained by supply. After an unsuccessful expansion to Queensland Olivado ended up in Kenya, where the climate allows for a much more consistent avocado harvest.

Kenya is a long way from Kerikeri. By any measure expansion to an unfamiliar Third World country that takes two days to get to would seem a bold move for a Kiwi startup.

For this venture, tragedy struck.

Chris Nathan's father, Julian, was brutally murdered when intruders apparently looking for cash entered the Nairobi apartment he was staying in.

Guards at the apartment complex had been paid off. Two other Olivado staffers were gagged and threatened, and Julian was beaten to death. The offenders were never caught.

The crime made major headlines, but behind the scenes Olivado was already having problems.

Five months after Nathan's murder Alan Mountfort offered to return to Kenya for the 2008 avocado season - other staff members refused to go back - and try to sort things out.