Chapel Bar & Bistro is a popular spot on Auckland's Ponsonby Rd. Photo / Doug Sherring
Chapel Bar & Bistro is a popular spot on Auckland's Ponsonby Rd. Photo / Doug Sherring
Popular Ponsonby Rd drinking hole Chapel Bar & Bistro is in receivership after it failed to pay back a loan to its co-owner worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Chapel Bar continued to operate after Auckland receiver Digby Noyce was appointed to its holding company Ponsonby Road Holdings last week,by sole director and major shareholder Kyle Anderson and Deborah Anderson, the notice read.
It was related to a loan they provided Chapel’s holding company in December 2023.
“He made a loan to the company to fund it and the company was unable to pay it back,” Noyce told the Herald.
He said the loan was in the hundreds of thousands, although he could not provide an exact figure over the phone on Monday.
“It’s fairly substantial,” he said, and Kyle Anderson gave the company “plenty of leeway” to pay it back.
“The company just couldn’t do it.”
Kyle Anderson co-owned 45% of the company alongside former director Craig Anderson, who also owned 45%, according to Companies Office records. Luke and Amanda Dallow owned 5% each.
Craig Anderson’s status as a director was listed as “ceased” in November last year.
Web of failed ventures
The pair were linked to a handful of failed hospitality operations, including the company behind failed bar Holy Hop in Auckland’s Kingsland, which went into liquidation in March owing around $172,000 to the Inland Revenue Department and $143,000 to unsecured creditors.
Craig Anderson was the major owner and sole director of Cotto on Auckland’s Karangahape Rd and the Leigh Sawmill restaurant north of Auckland, which both entered liquidation in March over unpaid taxes.
Sawmill Holdings Limited operated Leigh Sawmill Café, which was sold and taken over before the company went into liquidation on March 8. The café's website says “as of December 2023, the Leigh Sawmill Cafe is run by the original Guinness management once again”.
Speakeasy Holdings owned restaurant Cotto, which traded from leased premises on Auckland’s popular Karangahape Rd.
It went into liquidation on March 21.
Cotto is understood to have closed before the liquidation, however, it has since reopened under the name Otto.
A co-owner of Chapel was linked to other failed hospitality ventures, including Cotto on Auckland's Karangahape Rd, which entered liquidation earlier this year. Photo / Fiona Goodall
Liquidators’ attempts to contact Craig Anderson had been unsuccessful and they believed he was residing overseas, according to their first reports released to the Companies Office in April.
Other related entities they were involved in that had entered liquidation over unpaid employer and tax obligations included Allwyn Holdings and Pitt Street Holdings, which operated the Pitt Street Pub in Auckland.
Noyce said in the matter of Chapel’s receivership, Kyle Anderson was a secured creditor.
He had not been contacted by any other creditors since his appointment.
He said his appointment to Chapel Bar was likely a result of reduced retail spend across the economy.
“The whole hospitality industry is in suffering, as are many others, such as construction.”
