Nosh sale deadline extended
The deadline for a possible sale of troubled gourmet supermarket brand Nosh has been pushed back to the end of the month.
In December, the listed company that owns Nosh, Veritas Investments, said it had until January 16 to provide ANZ with an unconditional contract for the sale of Nosh, or with a proposal to wind it down.
If it failed to find a buyer Veritas, which also owned the Mad Butcher franchise, had to wind down Nosh by the end of March.
Veritas had listed six Nosh stores on Trade Me with asking prices of between $400,000 and $1.2 million, but last year said it could not be certain a buyer could be found in time.
Yesterday, however, Veritas said it had received ‘‘a number’’ of approaches from potential buyers of Nosh. It had entered into discussions with several parties as a result, and ANZ had agreed to extend the date for a proposal to the end of the month.
Nosh made a loss of $1.9 million last year, and Veritas had been working to franchise Nosh stores.
Last week, one of the franchised stores in Auckland appeared to split from Nosh. The store on Constellation Drive had removed its Nosh signage and appeared to be attempting to remove all references to the brand.
A shopper at the Constellation Drive shop in Auckland said the store had gone as far as scribbling over Nosh logos on items such as cheese, which had Nosh pricing labels stuck on the outside of their packaging.
When she paid for her shopping, the cashier tore the Nosh logo from the top of her receipt, she said.
A sign at the checkout told customers it was no longer Nosh
"Veritas does not accept that termination, and the parties are in dispute over the matter." Veritas Investments, on the brand's Constellation Drive franchise
and said that, due to changed arrangements, American Express would no longer be accepted.
Owner Phil Mead would not say what lay behind the changes, or whether his plan was to trade independently.
Yesterday, Veritas said the franchisee had indicated it intended to operate independently of the Nosh brand and terminated its franchise agreement.
‘‘Veritas does not accept that termination, and the parties are in dispute over the matter.’’
The Nosh store had been sold a few days before Veritas’ December announcement regarding ANZ’s ultimatum about the chain’s future. The entity which owned the store was put into receivership by Veritas a week earlier.