Food fight

Gourmet supermarket Nosh has temporarily closed at least four outlets, leaving staff and suppliers stumped. Now the former owner of the troubled chain is taking legal action against the new owner.

Veritas Investments has launched legal proceedings against the buyer of the upmarket Nosh Group of supermarkets. NZX- listed Veritas alleges Gosh Holdings, since renamed Nosh Group, consistently failed to meet a payment schedule, breaching a sale and purchase agreement which was completed in February, and missing $ 1.9 million of payments to creditors.

Veritas sold Nosh to Gosh in February this year for $ 4m and says it i s owed about $ 69,000 by the chain’s new owner.

“We entered into this transaction in good faith after a rigorous process and it is extremely disappointing that the directors of Gosh Holdings Limited ( now Nosh Group Limited) have clearly failed and continue to fail to meet their financial and legal obligations,” chairman Tim Cook alleged in a statement to the stock exchange.

“When Veritas originally purchased Nosh, Veritas committed to meet all creditors payments, which amounted to $ 3.9m, and honoured this.”

Yesterday it was revealed that Nosh has shut down at least four stores temporarily.

A staff member, who did not want to be named, said he was waiting to be paid. A creditor told the Herald her business was waiting for payment for stock.

A notice on the Dominion Rd Nosh said it was closed for relaunch. Another sign on the same store said it had low stock.

“Our stock supplies in this store are extremely low this week. We apologise for the inconvenience and ask that you bear with us while we work on stock replenishment,” said the notice. Other sites in Greenlane and Glen Innes had notices saying they were closed for relaunch until June 26.

Nosh in Ponsonby had a sign saying it was closed for relocation, but gave no date.

The Herald has seen a copy of a letter to Nosh staff on Wednesday, thanking workers for their support “through these difficult times”.

“We have been working on short- term and long- term funding over the past months and have secured the first tranche of funding and have signed the paperwork today,” Gosh Holdings director Andrew Phillips said in the letter.

“The funds to be deposited are coming from via [ sic] my financing contacts in Australia to be deposited into the Nosh Group bank account to cover today’s payroll and other immediate requirements,” the letter said. Phillips, who is based in Sydney, said in the letter that the business valued its staff and “look forward to the rebuilding of Nosh”.

“Please accept our sincere apologies for this situation and thank you for your patience and understanding at this challenging time.”

Latesha Randall from Raglan Coconut Yoghurt said her business was owed $ 9000.

Randall said she was told by Nosh’s Phillips that her company would be paid.

“I am hoping he can make good on this promise — there are certainly a lot of frustrated suppliers hoping this all works out,” she said.

Andrew Phillips did not return repeated calls or emails yesterday.