Creditors to vote on restaurant operator

Hospitality Group Go To Collection, which operates Madame Woo, Hawker and Roll and Rā ta Dining, will have its watershed voluntary administration meeting this Friday

PwC administrator Malcolm Hollis said the deed of company arrangement (DOCA) would be presented to the company’s creditors, which they would either accept or reject.

Hollis said Go To Collection currently had four outlets, including Rā ta Dining, Madame Woo in Queenstown and Hamilton, and “a central kitchen” in Onehunga.

He said if the proposal was accepted, the result would be subject to a vote, but creditors would receive a payout on each of their individual claims.

“Depending on the nature of the claim, they will receive between all of their money or some of it,” he said.

“I’d be I’m optimistic they will accept it, but you never know.”

The Herald reported last year that Go To Collection had gone into voluntary administration “to try and rehabilitate and restructure the business to avoid an alternative process such as liquidation”.

Hollis said if the current DOCA was accepted, all Go To Collection employees would be paid in full, while Inland Revenue and trade creditors would be only receiving a partial payment. Minor creditors of less than $1000 would be paid in full.

Payouts would come from shareholders in this case.

“As part of the arrangement, the landlords from the closed sites will receive three month’s rent and settlement,” Hollis said. “In that way, we’ve been able to determine the quantum of those landlords claims, which could have been quite large.”

He said Go To Collection had four outlets that are being sold to the existing shareholders.

“It’s effectively what we call a ‘hive down’, but at the same time they are taking over some of the bank debt and they are putting cash in.”

Hollis said this meant the bank was most likely to continue to support the needs of the new business.