Owner of rebranded Nosh store, struck-off real estate agent, allegedly owes supplier thousands

Saturday, 3 February 2018

Disgraced real estate agent Aaron Drever attempted to resurrect the failed Nosh supermarket as the 'The Grocer's Market'. But suppliers and former employees say they've been waiting weeks to be paid.

A fruit and vegetable company is taking High Court action against the owner of a rebranded Auckland Nosh store.

It's hoping to claw back thousands it's allegedly owed for produce.

A spokesman for Vision Fresh Produce and Marketing who did not wish to be named, said The Grocer's Market chief executive Aaron Drever owed his company $25,000.

Vision Fresh lodged legal proceedings in December requesting Drever pay back at least $13,000, the spokesman said.

The unmade payments date back to when Drever bought the Mount Eden Nosh store and rebranded it, he said.

Nosh was rebranded to The Grocer's Market.

Aaron Drever took over the Pt Chevalier Mad Butcher store last year but placed it in receivership months later.

* Auckland real estate agent Aaron Drever stripped of licence

* Another Mad Butcher store shuts up shop**

Drever admitted that Vision Fresh was owed 'some money'.

He said he disputed the amount owed because some of the produce was allegedly sub-standard and could not be sold.

'We did not agree and subsequently since that point we have taken legal action.'

He said his business had faced accounting and stock management issues and he took full responsibility for the problems.

At least 380 companies supply stock for The Grocer's Market shelves. Drever said no supplier would be left unpaid.

'It is easy to find fault when you focus on one or two – or four - suppliers.'

Drever had since found a 'handful of other suppliers' were not entered into the store's trading system. He had almost fixed that issue.

Radio New Zealand's Checkpoint reported the cleaner of the store and at least two employees had allegedly not been paid.

Drever said all of his employees had been paid.

He told RNZ that he had little supermarket operating experience and he would consider selling the store.

'[The Grocer's Market] needs an operator that has probably got a grocery background. I like grocery, but I guess I do not fully understand it because I have not come from that background.'

Drever's career background is in real estate. He was stripped of his real estate agent license in 2016 after eight charges of misconduct and unsatisfactory conduct spanning a five year period were brought against him.

His appeal to have his license revoked was dismissed by the High Court, with Justice Hinton ruling that Drever was 'not capable of complying' with sales practice standards.

Drever was proud of The Grocer's Market, although taking over the former Nosh store was 'a far larger and far more complex challenge than I ever envisaged'.

Companies Office Records show Drever owns two other companies - 9 Racing and Speedway Track Promotions.

He took over Auckland's Point Chevalier Mad Butcher store after his father, the former sole owner, died in March.

Six months later he placed the store in receivership because he was unable to transfer his father's shares into his name.

It was one of at least 10 Mad Butcher stores to face financial strife in the past two years.

NB: This story has been corrected to remove the reporting saying Drever bought the Nosh business from Veritas. He did not, he obtained the rights to the name from the receiver appointed by Andy Phillips, who owned the business after Veritas.