Unpaid supplier appoints receiver to sell The Grocer's Market

Monday, 19 February 2018

The business that owns The Grocer's Market supermarket was placed in receivership on Monday after two suppliers took legal action against it.

Tegel Foods applied to the High Court in Auckland to have the Old Auckland Grocers Market, trading as Grocer's Market, liquidated in December.

The liquidator of Aaron Drever's failed Mad Butcher store has now been appointed to sell his boutique supermarket The Grocer's Market.

Fruit and vegetable supplier Vision Fresh Produce and Marketing also lodged legal proceedings against the company in December to claw back at least $13,000 of the $25,000 it was allegedly owed for unpaid supply.

Struck-off real estate agent Aaron Drever is the owner and chief executive of Old Auckland Grocer's Market. He bought the Mount Eden supermarket site last year from Nosh Group receivers Waterstone Insolvency's Damien Grant and Steven Khov.

Nosh group receiver, Waterstone Insolvency's Damien Grant resigned as receiver of Drever's Mad Butcher store last year over a conflict of interest.

C & C Strategic's John Gilbert was appointed receiver of Old Auckland Grocers Market by a supplier on Monday. He would not name the supplier but said it was a secured creditor.

He had received two 'substantial' offers to buy the supermarket, but it was 'too early to tell' whether the site could be sold, he said.

He said he had spoken with Drever on Monday and he was 'not in the best shape'.

Drever reportedly said he would consider selling the supermarket that had become a 'far larger and far more complex challenge' than he expected.

Gilbert said Drever did not request to have him appointed to sell his company. 'He certainly did not ask for me.'

Gilbert had secured the business' assets and was now working with others to try and sell the company, he said.

After news broke this month that some of The Grocer's Market's 380 suppliers had not been paid, Drever said his house was on the line to ensure no supplier would be left unpaid.

He said two weeks ago that the 'handful of suppliers' that had taken action against his company were 'overly alarmist' and 'attempting to paint a picture that is misleading'.

Drever took over the ownership of Auckland's Point Chevalier Mad Butcher store in March last year after his father, the former owner Carl Drever, passed away.

Drever appointed Grant as receiver to Carl Drever Perfection Meats in October, but Grant resigned over conflict of interest as Nosh Group's receiver. Gilbert was appointed to liquidate Carl Drever Perfection Meats in November.

Grant said he resigned as receiver because former Nosh brand owner Veritas Investments and Drever disagreed over the butchery's securities arrangement.

'Veritas believed they had the ranking security. We had several people looking to buy it. Our problem was, when we sell the business, who do we pay the money too? I did not want to upset either of them.'

Grant was appointed as liquidator of TGM Trading, a company directed by Drever and wholly owned by CPL Trustee Services, on Monday.