Hansells, founded in Masterton in 1934, became famous for its range of pre-mixed and pre-prepared goods, including Jungle Juice and Vitafresh.
Kiwi food manufacturer Hansells has been taken over and is now reliant on supplier and Thai rice baron Varapong Supachok, who stepped in to save the company from receivership after bankers lost patience and withdrew support.
The company's annual accounts, obtained by the Herald but still overdue in being filed publicly with the Companies Office, show the losses of $7.5 million in 2014 widening to $8.6 million this year.
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The bleeding saw the company - which employs 350 people in New Zealand and turns over nearly $150 million of foodstuffs annually - record negative equity both years and repeatedly breach covenants with ANZ.
Minority shareholders who bought into the company over the past decade have complained to the Herald that recent performances have now made their stakes worthless.
Hansells' managing director Ross MacKenzie said equity levels had since been improved by a capital injection by Supachok and the late filing was due to an "oversight" when they elected not to appoint an auditor to save costs.
"An auditor was not required by our bank, because there's no debt with the bank any more. But there was an oversight, because we've got a foreign owner, and we should have got an auditor," he said.
Hansells, founded in Masterton in 1934 by a chemist called Hansen and an entrepreneur called Maunsell, became famous for its range of pre-mixed and pre-prepared goods, including Jungle Juice and Vitafresh.
The immediate future is good. We've been through a lot of pain and restructuring. Staff morale is good. We've got major support from our major shareholder, and we're rebuilding from there.
Food chemist MacKenzie took over Hansells in 2006 and merged the business with his own Old Fashioned Foods - based around the Aunt Betty's brand of pudding - and installed himself as managing director and centralised production at the company's Penrose headquarters.
As with many acquisitions in the boom years just prior to the global financial crisis, cracks soon emerged.
Australian merchant bankers Gresham Rabo had part-financed the 2006 purchase and became major shareholders. It is understood they exited the company in 2009, having $4.7 million to show for an investment of $12 million. Gresham Rabo did not respond to a request for comment.
Supachok, whose company Kasisuri is a major supplier for Hansells Alfa One rice bran oil, first stepped in to take on most of the Gresham stake and he has since steadily built his share of the company through capital injections to keep the business afloat.
Supachok's recent investments into Hansells have been substantial. The 2015 accounts record his company was a creditor owed $23 million, and he underwrote a $10 million share issue in August.
A letter to shareholders presented at the company's AGM in September said he had cleared debts owed to ANZ - recorded as $31.8 million owed in March 31 - suggesting his recent investment into the company totalled more than $40 million.
McKenzie was unwilling to discuss Supachok's investments in detail but said it was "major" and included share issues, yet to be filed with the Companies Office, that now made him the majority owner.
We are of course backed by a major bank who's backing our major shareholder. And we do have trading facilities, although we no longer have debt facilities.
According to Companies Office filings, Supachok also shifted his place of residence last month from Bangkok to a waterfront home north of Auckland in Stanmore Bay.
The letter to shareholders from the rice baron disclosed ANZ had been threatening to tip the company into receivership and had monitored the company's finances as it sought to unwind its exposure to Hansells.
Supachok acknowledged the recent financial year had been a "difficult one for the company and me personally" and went on to outline problems with sales overseas and financing difficulties.
Supachok wrote the firm had "continued to lose substantial amounts in the Australian market", leading to failed efforts to sell its Australian business.
Supachok said tensions with ANZ reached a point where "the bank demanded their facility to be all paid back in a very restricted timeframe while continually threatening to put the company into receivership".
The company was a relatively new client of ANZ, having switched from Westpac in the 2012 financial year.
In the past few months Hansells had entered into an agreement with factoring provider Bibbys Financial Service.
MacKenzie said that although the past few years for the company had been painful and mistakes had been made, he expressed optimism for the future.
He said although the company no longer had debt facilities with banks, they did have banking support via Supachok who the company was "very fortunate" to have as a backer.
"The immediate future is good. We've been through a lot of pain and restructuring. Staff morale is good. We've got major support from our major shareholder, and we're rebuilding from there."
MacKenzie's optimism isn't shared by minority shareholders the Smythe family, where five brothers said they had invested $1.5 million and had to accept the sum has likely been wiped out.
Brendan Smythe said he and his tradesmen brothers had made the investments over the past 15 years.
"We put our money in repeatedly, we were pretty naive. It makes for interesting family gatherings, trying to work out who's the biggest loser," he said.
Smythe said he and his family members were mulling High Court action after recently being offered $1 a share by the company after buying in for more than ten times that amount.
"We've been under the bus for a while now, and figure we've got to suck it up and either cry about it or get on with trying to get our money," he said.
MacKenzie said he had some sympathy for his minority shareholders, but sometimes business cycles were inhospitable.
"I fully understand that - you don't invest money to lose it - but business doesn't always go smoothly."