Kitchen Things, SolarZero collapse: Full staff payouts, customers still in the lurch

Tuesday, 30 September 2025

All Kitchen Things stores have closed and staff have been paid out, and receivers confirmed that “frustrated” customer claims would be unsecured.

Grant Thornton receivers have closed all Kitchen Things stores, responded to a wave of frustrated customer complaints, and paid out staff entitlements at the insolvent retailer and the now closed firm, SolarZero.

But customers looking for cash back from Kitchen Things were still at the bottom of the list for creditor claims.

Grant Thornton receiver Stephen Keen said on Tuesday that all Kitchen Things had now closed. (The Hamilton store is not in receivership and is privately owned.)

Kitchen Things’ 130 staff had been paid out in full for preferential entitlements covering holiday pay and other entitlements, up to $31,820 per person.

The payments were completed last week, when Kitchen Things’ first receivers report showed 124 staff were claiming $57,000 from the company. That was on top of more than $16 million in total creditor claims.

Keen also acknowledged consumer frustration, with customers charged more than once for a purchase, receiving damaged goods and slow responses from receivers.

“We can understand customers’ frustration with the situation,” Keen said in a statement on Tuesday. “Unfortunately, when a retail business fails and goes into receivership, receivers often face tough challenges around entitlements to the stock held at the time of the appointment.”

Keen declined to comment on a raft of consumer complaints regarding the wind-down last week. This week, he said tracing individual items to specific customer orders was often impossible when inventory was missing or already sold.

Those customers would be treated as unsecured creditors and were behind employees and other preferential claims in clawing any cash back.

“Under the Companies Act 1993, employees of insolvent businesses are to be prioritised ahead of unsecured creditors,” Keen said. “Now that we’ve achieved this milestone for Kitchen Things’ employees, our goal is to ensure the best outcome for all stakeholders through the sale of stock and assets.”

Remaining Kitchen Things products are now being sold through auction house number8.bid, which specialises in liquidation stock.

SolarZero collapse and payout

Grant Thornton also confirmed that 170 employees of SolarZero had also received their full entitlements, though the process was slower than at Kitchen Things.

The New Zealand-founded solar installation company was majority-owned by the world’s largest fund manager, BlackRock. It had a market share of about a third of New Zealand’s solar power installations with 15,000 arrays on homes nationwide.

The company was tipped into liquidation by BlackRock last year. Employees were based across office sites in Auckland, Christchurch and Wanaka who had been in the lurch since last July.

BlackRock did not respond to any requests for comment.

The company announced the closure on Facebook with chief executive Matt Ward saying the situation was “obviously disappointing, given the strides we have made over the past couple of years”.