Maketū Pies: First liquidators’ report released

Maketū Pies was placed into solvent liquidation last week. Photo / Laura Smith

Liquidators will take care of the Maketū Pies business while they find a buyer.

The celebrated brand, registered as Maketū Foods Ltd, was placed into voluntary solvent liquidation last week.

Its owner, Te Arawa Management Ltd, bought the national pie supplier in 2019 during a receivership process but says it has operated at a loss since.

It was, at the time, the town’s largest employer and had operated for about 40 years. It had about 40 staff, mostly locals.

Te Arawa Management Ltd is a subsidiary of the Rotorua-based Te Arawa Lakes Trust.

Joint liquidators Thomas Rodewald and Paul Manning from BDO Tauranga released their first report on Thursday, which detailed the next steps of the process.

The liquidators will trade the business in the short term while they advertise it for sale, and will arrange asset and stock valuation.

“The company was purchased out of receivership and the shareholders have been putting funds into the business since.

“It is not economic for this to continue and the shareholders resolved to liquidate the company.”

They believed all creditors would be paid in full within a year, if they weren’t already.

January 13 was set as the last day for creditors to make claims.

The liquidators will advertise their appointment in the relevant publications, arrange for financial statements and tax returns to the date of the liquidation and to the finalisation date to be completed and filed.

They will complete a final report and request for the company to be removed from the register.

A liquidation completion date will be given in a later report.

The liquidators this week provided a statement to Local Democracy Reporting that said the business and its assets, including intellectual property such as the brand name, would be for sale.

It would continue to operate while an exit strategy was finalised.

Maketū Pies is a major employer for the tiny town. Photo / Laura Smith

Te Arawa Management Ltd interim chief executive Tina Kilmister-Blue previously said the “difficult decision” was made after a “great deal of discussion and deliberation”.

She sent community leaders a letter last week advising of the liquidation.

It outlined the sector challenges which included increasing costs and smaller margins and how it could “no longer continue to contribute further investment to keep operating”.

Some “serious” options were investigated but none were viable as they required significant investment.

Locals hoped a buyer would step in, or take over the premises in some way, given the impact on employment a closure would have on the tiny town.

The Maketū population was 1311 in the 2023 Census.

Laura Smith is a Local Democracy Reporting journalist based at the Rotorua Daily Post. She previously reported general news for the Otago Daily Times and Southland Express, and has been a journalist since 2019.

- LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.