School lunch provider Libelle Group in liquidation

Tuesday, 11 March 2025

David Seymour launching the new lunch programme last year. He says Libelle’s liquidation won’t be disruptive.

One of the companies at the centre of complaints about school lunches has gone into liquidation.

The liquidation of lunch subcontractor Libelle Group, which provided 125,000 lunches each day to contractor Compass, was notified on Tuesday morning.

Robert Campbell and David Webb of Deloitte New Zealand were appointed as liquidators. Webb said there were talks with Compass taking place to keep the service going, while a review of Libelle was in place.

Libelle was part of the School Lunch Collective, a partnership between Compass, Gilmours, and Libelle, with ingredients supplied by more than 17 food manufacturers and suppliers.

Murchison Area School principal Andy Ashworth said the meals his school received from provider Libelle were 'appalling', and that children had eaten plastic that had baked into the food.

Paul Harvey, from the School Lunch Collective, said the Collective’s priority “remains ensuring that 120,000 students continue to receive nutritious meals every school day.”

“Deloitte, as liquidator, has asked Compass Group New Zealand to help manage the transition and ensure stability while exploring options for Libelle’s future.

“To minimise disruption, Compass Group New Zealand has taken immediate steps to support Libelle, including ensuring staff wages are paid and keeping kitchen facilities running.”

Professor Boyd Swinburn says the collapse of Libelle is a “tipping point” for the school lunches programme.

Associate Education Minister David Seymour, the architect of the new school lunch programme, said the liquidation was a “commercial matter between Compass and Libelle. Compass has assured the Ministry that any disruption will be minimised, and the liquidation process will not materially impact the provision of school lunches.

“To ensure the uninterrupted delivery of the school meals provided by Libelle central production kitchens, the Compass Group has told the ministry that it will assume operations during this transition and take responsibility for providing meals every school day.”

The Collective was funded $3 per meal for the new programme, introduced by Seymour late last year and which began in schools this year, and which he touted as saving the Government $130m. Nutrition experts have previously questioned whether $3 could deliver a nutritious meal.

Libelle and Compass have been supplying lunches since 2021, but the companies have had dozens of complaints about them laid by schools.

Documents show officials repeatedly raised risks related to the providers, given the high number of incidents and complaints about them.

Christchurch school Haeata Community Campus complained that some of its students were left with steam burns from school lunches.

Co-chair of Health Coalition Aotearoa, Professor Boyd Swinburn, called the collapse of Libelle a “tipping point” for the programme.

“The whole thing has been an absolute trainwreck. It’s been heading towards a crash since it began, but this is definitely a tipping point,” Swinburn told The Post.

“I don’t know what happens now, but there were so many warning signals before we reached this point. This needs to be, enough is enough.”

Swinburn said he hoped politicians would take this as an opportunity to put “someone in charge with a wide and realistic vision about what school lunches can be provided and at what cost”.

The Government was looking at the number of lunches they could provide for the minimum number of dollars, he said, whereas previous programmes had been built on a “fair price that delivers good quality”.

Previously, school lunches had been provided by local groups who liaised directly with schools.

“If you look at the number of meals per worker that can be produced from a large centralised system with huge capacity such as Libelle, compared to a local group, then yes the person in big central system can produce many more lunches per person.

“But you can’t be blinded by that light and not see anything else, such as the any benefits to local employment, the relationship between the school and supplier, and the impact it has on local supply chains.”

About 20 Libelle staff were enjoying the sun while eating lunch outside the Hamilton Libelle facility when a reporter visited on Tuesday.

School lunch providor Libelle Group went into liquidation on Tuesday. Pictured is its Hamilton premises.

Staff said they had been told not to speak to media and the reception, fronted with a sign proclaiming the company's role of 'feeding kids', was locked when approached. There was little traffic into, or out of the facility in industrial Te Rapa.

Libelle provided meals to Murchison Area School, in the South Island, which principal Andy Ashworth earlier said were “appalling”, and that children had eaten plastic that had baked into the food.

Other meals had arrived with the plastic melted into the top. The school last year had meals provided by a cafe across the street, whereas the new meals came from Hamilton 700km away.

Rangiora High School principal, Bruce Kearney, said the school had not received any communication from Libelle, which had been running Rangiora High School’s canteen for around five years.

“It makes me feel really bad for the people who actually work in our canteen who are employed by them,” Kearney said.

“I mean, if we’re only hearing through the news, then they’re probably only hearing from the news too, so they’re gonna be pretty upset I’d say.”

Kearney said the school had “absolutely no alternative,” regarding the running of their canteen. He said they’ll manage in the short term and it could be a good opportunity to have a look at what they do with their canteen.

In an email sent to a school today, seen by The Post, the Ministry of Education said it had just been informed of the liquidation.

“Compass Group NZ has assured the Ministry that any disruption will be minimised, and the liquidation process will not materially impact the provision of school lunches,” the email said.

“The advantage of the School Lunch Collective is that, if as in this case, one business is unable to proceed, the remaining companies pull together to make sure that through their combined manufacturing capacity, knowledge and experience they can respond and adapt.”

Murchison Area School principal Andy Ashworth received an email at 12.45pm and had inquired further to the ministry but had not heard back.

“All we’ve been told is Compass are carrying on, but I’ll be honest, I have no idea what that means.”

“We’re all in a bit of a void at the moment and because I’ve heard nothing else, I’m assuming that meals will turn up tomorrow. Who from and where from I have no idea.”

Ashworth has found the ordeal “frustrating,” and doesn’t know what to tell his school community.

He said Libelle going bust may prove that the government can’t do school lunches for $3 a meal.

He has been inquiring about going back to a local model, such as the cafe down the road who supplied fresh lunches last year.

“For roughly $5 [a meal] they could get the service up and going again and instead of claiming that they’re doing this for $3 - which is rubbish with all the transporter and everything else, absolute rubbish.”

British-based multinational Compass Group became the lead supplier for the new model school lunch programme introduced in late 2024, despite both Compass and Libelle losing contracts prior to the overhaul due to poor quality in food and service.

Both suppliers had undergone a performance management plan, overseen by the Ministry of Education, earlier in 2024.

Compass had also been severely criticised in the past of its catering supply to many New Zealand hospitals.

Additional reporting: Madeleine Powers