Cheesed off: Covid, staffing issues blamed for two Domino's businesses hitting wall

Domino's Ponsonby continues but under different ownership. Photo / Supplied

Times are tough when outlets of a globally branded multinational pizza business go to the wall in New Zealand because its owners can't get staff or make enough dough to survive.

American-headquartered chain Domino's says it is Australia's largest in the pizza trade in both network store numbers and sales. Yet the company running two of its Kiwi stores have just folded.

The owners of the stores told liquidators they couldn't keep their stores afloat due to the pandemic, staffing problems - and of course, not making enough dough.

Mcdonald Vague's Keaton Pronk and Iain McLennan are liquidators of RK & JJ which operated as a fast food retailer, trading as a Domino's in Ponsonby and Tokoroa.

"The liquidation of the company was the result of Covid lockdowns having a detrimental effect on customer retention and never recovering to the pre-Covid sales levels at the Ponsonby and Tokoroa store," the liquidators' first report said.

In Ponsonby, the store continues to trade from the Cider Building, Williamson Ave and in Tokoroa from Bridge St. But ownership has changed in both cases.

"The downturn in sales as a result of Covid was compounded with staffing issues that resulted in the stores being closed down," the liquidators said.

The company was in hock to a few powerful, wealthy parties including global businesses.

One of the world's largest companies, Coca-Cola Amatil, is owed money but so is the national franchise business Domino's Pizza New Zealand.

National food wholesaler and distributor Bidfood, ASB Bank, Gilmours Mt Roskill and Oxford Finance also have registered security interests against the company on the Person Property Securities Register.

And it might not be pretty once all the business interests have been diced and sliced. That means those parties could rank ahead of unsecured creditors when it comes to divvying up any money the liquidators manage to recover.

But the chances of any money being squeezed from what's left of the company which operated the food chain outlets seems unlikely - more crumbs than an entire slice of pizza, it seems.

Inland Revenue is yet to provide a creditor's claim form but the liquidators said they understood there were amounts due for FST, PAYE tax and other payroll deductions amounting to more than $128,000.

"We estimated that preferential creditors may recover 0 per cent in the dollar," the liquidators warned those with money at stake.

Unsecured creditors are owed about $43,000 and won't get a cent, they forecast.

No creditors' meeting is proposed to be held.

Accident Compensation Corporation, Bluestar, Catering Equipment Services Wellington and Coco-Cola Europacific Partners New Zealand are listed as creditors.

Ecolab, Envirowaste and Lloyd Electrical of North Harbour also appear in the schedule of creditors.

RK & JJ's owners are Sweta Jayantilal Pandya and Dipen Patel. Patel alone is its director, the liquidators said.

The two shareholders called in the liquidators voluntarily, deciding they'd had enough of trying to continue making pizzas.

The company's trading address was 14 Hirimate Place, Flat Bush and the business was only incorporated in April 2019, less than a year before New Zealand's first national Covid lockdown.

In a twist on this story, the two stores are still being operated, but not by the company which is in liquidation.

The Ponsonby and Tokoroa Domino's were handed from the franchisee to Domino's Pizza Enterprises before the liquidator was appointed, the Herald understands.

Last month Domino's announced it was pulling out of Italy, citing namely pandemic-related issues.