Tauranga funeral business Reflections placed in liquidation

Reflections Funeral Directors & Advisors has been placed in liquidation. Photo / Sandra Conchie

A Tauranga funeral business has been placed into liquidation owing more than $150,000.

Reflections Funeral Directors and Advisors owes nearly $120,000 to BNZ and $30,672 to Tauranga and Auckland city councils for cemetery and cremation fees.

Grant Reynolds, of insolvency firm Reynolds and Associates, was appointed liquidator on August 12 after Tauranga City Council successfully applied to the High Court at Tauranga to put the business into liquidation.

The application was heard on June 24. Confirmation of the liquidator’s appointment was published in a public notice on August 13.

NZ Companies Office records show the company has been operating since 2016 and the sole director and shareholder is Nikki Grey Roberts.

The company was trading from a leased site on Bethlehem Rd in the Bethlehem Shopping Centre up until last year.

Reynolds’ first liquidator’s report, dated September 13,

includes an estimated statement of financial affairs as of August 12 prepared using management accounts, financial records, statements and information from Roberts.

The documents show the list of the company’s assets was not yet available, and there were four known secured creditors, including the BNZ, which is owed an estimated $119,692.

The other known creditors were FlexiCommercial (relating to goods), Heartland Bank, Nissan Financial Services New Zealand (relating to motor vehicles), Tauranga City Council and Auckland City Council.

The councils listed as unsecured creditors are owed a total of $30,672 for cemetery and cremation fees.

Tauranga City Council’s statement of claim, obtained by the Bay of Plenty Times, revealed that as of May 17, the company owed $27,303.90 for cemetery costs and $569.25 in costs after a statutory payment demand was issued on March 13.

The council submitted it was “just and equitable” the company should be placed into liquidation because it could not pay its debts.

Reynolds told the Bay of Plenty Times that both councils’ debt claims related to warrant fees for cemetery and cremation services and Auckland City Council’s claim was for $3228.

The estimated statement of affairs also revealed preferential creditors were owed about $5017 and another $7913 was owed to a creditor who registered a security interest over supplied equipment. Amounts owed to the IRD and other parties were yet to be confirmed.

Reynolds said he was unable to say how long the liquidation would take.

The Bay of Plenty Times was unable to contact Roberts.

Tauranga City Council chief financial officer Paul Davidson said the council preferred to work with businesses on payment arrangements to clear utstanding debts.

Davidson said discussions between the company and the council began in September 2022.

“Our collections team contacted the company... a further five times in 2022, putting a payment plan in place and granting extensions where possible.”

He said there were multiple communications between council staff and the company last year.

Davidson said the debt was eventually forwarded to the Baycorp collection agency which served the statutory demand on the company in March.

Sandra Conchie is a senior journalist at the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post who has been a journalist for 24 years. She mainly covers police, court and other justice stories, as well as general news. She has been a Canon Media Awards regional/community reporter of the year.