Creditors seek $1.7m from Nando's NZ operator

The New Zealand Nando's restaurant chain has been placed into a "messy" liquidation.

Creditors are claiming around $1.7 million from the company that owns the master franchise for Nando's fast food chain, which is in a "messy" liquidation.

This amount does not include the $1.6 million owed to Heartland Bank when the company went into receivership in late November.

Liquidators Rogers Reidy were last month appointed to Auckland-based Shivram, which holds the master franchise for the more than 30-store restaurant network in this country.

Shivram went into receivership on November 29 - the same day the Business Herald revealed the company was copping flak from a number of disgruntled current and former franchisees.

They said a lack of national marketing was stifling the chain's growth and that several franchisees were owed substantial sums of money on loans they provided to the franchisor.

Nando's stores in New Zealand, which are independently owned, are not in receivership and continuing to operate as normal.

The receivers are trying to sell the business and it is hoped the sale may go through shortly joint liquidator Derek Ah Sam told the Herald today.

Ah Sam said creditors had filed claims of around $1.7 million but that these had yet to be verified.

The largest creditor was the Australian franchisor, which made a claim in the region of $400,000.

Some franchisees had also made claims, the liquidator said.

Inland Revenue had filed a claim for over $100,000.

Ah Sam said the liquidators had yet to meet with the director of firm, who cancelled a meeting scheduled for this week.

"My understanding from the receiver is that the books and records are not up to scratch," the liquidator said.

The company's major asset was the master franchise for the Nandos chain in New Zealand, he said.

"Having a little chance to look at the situation to date, it's going to be very very messy and really it depends on how the receivers deal with their negotiation [for the sale]," Ah Sam said.