Olivado liquidation: Seeka boss explains why they bought the company

Seeka chief executive Michael Franks said if nobody bought Olivado, a lot of fruit would go to waste. Photo / Michael Craig

Seeka has taken over the operating assets of avocado and olive oil business Olivado and says it will launch a new brand.

Earlier this month, liquidators said Olivado, the Northland company linked to film producer Gary Hannam, owed more than $3 million.

But now Seeka, one of the country’s biggest agribusinesses, will integrate Olivado’s operations with its own.

Seeka chief executive Michael Franks today told the Herald that avocado oil was a premium product extracted from fruit which otherwise would go to waste.

“It’s a value-recovery process, essentially. We do that already down in the Bay of Plenty with a smaller-scale operation down here.”

Franks said if nobody purchased Olivado’s operating assets then no one would process much of the fruit which did not reach export or retail quality. He said the price paid for the business was confidential.

In January, Seeka joined court proceedings against Olivado.

Franks today said aspects of the case had been “disappointing” but any ongoing legal action was strictly a matter for liquidators.

He said he was happy Olivado staff would keep their jobs.

At the time of liquidation, Olivado was still trading, still operating as an avocado and olive oil processor and supplier, and employed seven people.

“To be fair to them, they’ve been dedicated, because they’ve stayed with the business through this uncertainty,” Franks said of the staff.

He said Seeka was involved in other crops including kiwifruit, so it should be able to provide work even when the avocado oil business was quiet.

The purchase excluded the Olivado brand.

“We now have to establish a new brand.”

Michael Franks, chief executive of Seeka Group.

Franks said he hoped shoppers supported the new brand once it was announced.

He said Seeka was working with a key account manager to ensure oil products could still be sold in supermarkets.

Earlier this year, Foodstuffs was selling up to 14 different Olivado products.

The processing facility is near Kerikeri.

Franks said avocado harvesting was unusual because it often started in winter and could continue until late summer.

Fruit could stay on avocado trees for a long time without falling or spoiling, and the country was only now at the end of the avocado season, he said.

“The oil content comes up a little later in the calendar year.”

To make oil, Franks said fruit is pressed, then placed in a malaxer, a centrifugal device where the fruit was heated up.

Then it wis refined, bottled, labelled and sent out to retailers.

Far North Avocado Suppliers, in liquidation itself, applied in January to have Olivado liquidated at the High Court at Whangārei.

According to the first report from liquidators Garry Whimp and Benjamin Francis earlier this month, secured creditors were owed $1,981,960.49, preferential creditors $200,621.21, and unsecured creditors approximately $1,008,836.90.

Creditors at that time included banks, a local Mitre 10, Auckland Chamber of Commerce, BioGro NZ, Far North District Council, DHL Express and the Ministry for Primary Industries

Liquidator Gary Whimp today said he was very pleased Seeka made the acquisition.

As for who might still be owed money, he said: “We’re still trying to get to the bottom of that, and claims are continuing to come in. We’ll start our investigation in earnest.”