Gosh, Nosh it’s a sorry saga
Shareholders who bought into Mad Butcher’s owner now regret their involvement.
Entering Veritas Investments’ annual meeting yesterday, shareholder Robert Gray called the company a ‘‘disaster’’.
Asked if he regretted buying Veritas shares, Gray replied ‘‘too right I do’’.
The company needed a 12-month extension from its bank, ANZ, to turn more profit and refinance, he said.
Veritas’ debt repayments to ANZ were due on October 2 but had been extended twice, first to November 30 and again to February 28 next year, due to a number of factors, including asset-sale proposals not being completed.
Shareholder Edwin Stranaghan also regretted buying into Veritas. He had lost a few thousand dollars from his investment, he said.
At the meeting, Stranaghan asked Veritas chairman Tim Cook if the company was heading for liquidation.
Cook replied: ‘‘That does not mean liquidation at this point … But I give no assurances or guarantees.’’
Veritas’ board accepted responsibility for what shareholder Karl Trotter called the ‘‘Nosh debacle’’, Cook said.
ANZ forced NZX-listed Veritas to sell its troubled gourmet supermarket brand Nosh late last year to repay debt.
It sold the Nosh brand to Gosh Holdings, since renamed Nosh Group, in February for $4 million.
Nosh Group has since been liquidated and Veritas took legal action against it over its alleged refusal to pay a $1.9m fee to creditors.
Regarding the sale of Nosh, Cook told the meeting, ‘‘we did everything right, they [the Nosh buyers] are the ones that faulted’’.
Trotter said he was frustrated over the board’s ‘‘reluctance to accept responsibility’’.
‘‘It is pretty difficult to land a punch on you guys [the board], because it always seems to be the lawyers’ fault, somebody else’s fault … Nobody ever seems to get anything wrong.’’
Cook said after the meeting his board had been ‘‘absolutely’’ truthful with its shareholders and the market.
He said he could not discuss the company’s plans or whether it would try to buy more assets.
Cook ended an interview with Stuff when asked about Veritas’ debt repayments to ANZ.
Veritas owns the Mad Butcher franchise and eight bars through the Better Bar Company.
The company owns three of 31 Mad Butcher stores. Three franchised stores closed this year.
Gray asked Cook in the meeting if the company could survive without selling the franchise. ‘‘Some action’’ needed to be taken, Cook answered. ‘‘At the end of the day you need someone with a chequebook prepared to buy them.’’
In the 2016-17 financial year, Veritas made an after-tax profit of $4m, after a $600,000 after-tax loss the previous year.
Director John Moore said he had ‘‘nothing to say’’ about the state of the company.
Veritas’ largest shareholder and director Michael Morton also refused to comment.
Director Sharon Hunter stepped down from the four-person board yesterday.
Hunter refused to comment on whether she thought she had done enough to leave the company in good shape.
Moore said the company had searched for another director but there had been no takers.