Retail chain behind Yoyoso and Miniso shuts stores after liquidation
Monday, 12 January 2026
The parent company behind Yoyoso and Miniso stores and Asian supermarket Acecco has been placed into liquidation owing millions of dollars to creditors.
ANCZ Limited, formerly Yoyoso NZ, was placed into liquidation by the High Court on December 17, on application of H&D Investments Limited. The trading companies behind individual stores belonging to the three brands were subsequently put into liquidation, a total of 23 companies.
The retail brands, which sold mostly home and lifestyle goods and were run by Auckland-based director Lin Liu, had stores all over Auckland. However, only eight were trading at the time of liquidation.
Keaton Pronk and Steve Farquhar of insolvency practitioners McDonald Vague were appointed liquidators, and shut the Northcote store of supermarket Acecco Northcote. They continued to trade the Mt Albert store.
Yoyoso is a Korean brand with more than 5000 stores in 100 countries.
The liquidators’ first report pertaining to all 23 of the Yoyoso Group of Companies, including 13 Yoyoso stores, cited “lack of trading revenue” as the reason as to why many stores were placed into liquidation.
Some Yoyoso and Miniso stores have continued to trade in recent weeks to reduce stock levels at each of the stores.
Liquidators said remaining stores would close as stock was reduced and landlords decided to close.
“Staff in the trading entities will continue to be employed as needed to assist in trading down the group, along with a couple of day-to-day management staff,” according to the liquidators first report.
“The 16 other entities the liquidators have been appointed over no longer trade a physical location but we understand they may still have debts owed to staff, IRD and various landlords,” it stated.
The report states ANCZ Limited owed $217,000 to former employees combined for wages, holiday pay and redundancy pay.
About $63,000 of that has been paid so far, according to liquidators, to bring wage arrears up to date. They expect staff will be paid their entitlements in full.
The company is believed to owe the Inland Revenue Department GST of $910,000 and PAYE and other payroll deductions of $30,000.
Unsecured creditors are collectively owed $2.1 million.
The liquidators, who don’t expect IRD and unsecured creditors to be paid all they are owed, have been contacted for further comment.
Business liquidations have skyrocketed over the past year, with 300 liquidations - the highest in more than a decade - reported in October alone.