Pandemic business blow sees 30 go bust

AT LEAST 30 Geelong businesses filed for bankruptcy amid the escalating coronavirus pandemic, new statistics reveal.

Australian Financial Security Authority released regional personal insolvency statistics for the first three months of 2020.

Data revealed the number of debtors facing personal insolvency in the Geelong region grew from 19 in December, to 50 by the end of March.

Of those 50 businesses, 30 had filed for bankruptcy.

Affected companies included those in construction, transport and logistics and healthcare sectors.

According to statistics, 38 Geelong companies facing debt were no longer in operation, up from 11 at the end of last year.

Just 12 debtors facing personal insolvency were in business by the end of March.

Local numbers ranked the highest in regional Victoria, followed by Ballarat (20) and Bendigo (18).

It comes weeks after economic experts projected City of Greater Geelong’s yearly GDP would shrink by up to 10 per cent this financial year.

Rodger Reidy director and insolvency specialist David Holton told the Geelong Advertiser his company had seen a steady decline in numbers over April and May based on the company’s own corporate research.

The lull came after the Federal Government announced JobKeeper and various financial support options for businesses and jobseekers alike.

“It is largely anticipated in the industry that the numbers of appointments will start to increase sometime between June and December 2020 as we slowly come out of the COVID arrangements and the Government financial packages (like JobKeeper) are finalised,” Mr Holton said.

“Locally from a Geelong point of view — we have fielded numerous inquiries from businesses that are under financial pressure.

“However, to date, there has not been a surge in any formal appointments.”