Melissa’s files for liquidation

It seems that the blue and white Melissa’s banner is about to be folded up.

The company – which originated in Cape Town in 1996 when husband-and-wife duo Melissa and Mark van Hoogstraten, opened a “tiny” store in Tamboerskloof, Cape Town – on Monday filed for insolvency, just nine months after its coming of age.

Having had a significant multiplier effect, the brand’s 19 stores – employing some 400-plus staff across the country – are now facing the threat of closing down.

Apart from its stores and an e-commerce platform, Melissa’s also supplied its products to around 300 national retailers.

Having confirmed the insolvency with liquidator Craig Hathorn, of Lynn and Hathorn Incorporated, Moneyweb learned that the situation was currently under investigation, with a comprehensive report on the much-loved brand’s downturn to its creditors expected by the end of July.

Noting that Melissa’s was “hopelessly insolvent”, Hathorn added that business rescue would not be the right vehicle for the liquidation. Currently, the liquidators would look at selling “the whole or parts of the business” as going concerns to maximise value for its creditors.

Only three of the brand’s shops are owned and operated by the original CC – all Cape Town-based including the original Melissa’s at 94 Kloof Road, where Van Hoogstraten first made everything from rusks to snoek paté herself. The company then started outsourcing the production of its goods to “housewives baking out of their kitchens. As our stores grew, their businesses grew”.

The remaining Melissa’s stores, spread across four provinces, are franchisee-owned. Hathorn would be in charge of the three CC-owned shops’ liquidation. What went wrong? Hathorn noted that at this stage it was too early to comment on what caused the delicatessen-meets-decor store chain to spiral into liquidation, while Melissa’s employees also preferred to remain mum.

In an earlier interview, Van Hoogstraten was quoted by Eye Witness News as saying that the company didn’t expand based on a set plan, but rather on people’s enthusiasm for the brand.

Moneyweb approached a number of franchisees for comment, with most declining to comment, but one adding emotionally that they employed a lot of people and that it all happened very quickly.

Moneyweb

Resilient Reit, the listed property group facing damning allegations of shady dealings, has begun a process to restate its financial results going back to last year.

This comes largely as a result of the company revising its views on the accounting treatment of its black economic empowerment (BEE) trusts, the Siyakha Education Trust 1 and Siyakha Education Trust 2. Resilient will now consolidate the trusts into its own financial results, which will have a negative impact on its past stated distributable income and its dividend growth outlook.

But it’s also a massive concession