KordaMentha said the receivership affected 35 Kitchen House staff members, who were sent home from work at the beginning of the week after the company shut its stores and ceased trading.
A number of out-of-pocket Kitchen House customers, who have made deposits with the firm, have contacted the Business Herald since the retailer's collapse.
One customer, who did not want to be named, said she had paid Kitchen House $4000 for a stone bench top at the end of January but had now been informed by the supplier that the retailer had not paid for it and it would not be delivered.
"We have a young baby and we need our kitchen to be fully functioning asap so [we] have no choice but to pay the benchtop supplier direct and hope that we get some monies back in the future," she said.
Another customer said he had called Kitchen House on Sunday, the day before it stopped trading, to arrange the final payment towards his $5959 kitchen, but was not informed of the situation.
"There was no mention that the company was in difficulty," he said.
A former Criterion staff member said the "writing has been on the wall for a long time" at Kitchen House. "All Kitchen House staff were told to use up all outstanding annual leave at the end of last year."
Consumer NZ chief executive Sue Chetwin said the Kitchen House customers who had made deposits were "pretty much unsecured creditors now".
"There might be some glimmer of hope if people have paid deposits using credit cards [because they could try and reverse the charge] ... but even then that's a long bow to be drawing," Chetwin said.
Kitchen House has a history of financial troubles and last went into receivership in February 2009.
At that time receivers BDO said the business had been affected by the downturn in property developments and softening of the residential housing market during the onset of the global financial crisis.
Criterion announced in April 2009 that it had acquired Kitchen House for an undisclosed sum.
KordaMentha did not return calls yesterday.
