Waffle Haus takes on liquidators over GrabOne collapse

Wednesday, 19 November 2025

Waffle Haus owner Jamie Stewart wants a new liquidator to look at the failed GrabOne company.

Creditors of failed coupon company GrabOne, led by a Christchurch waffle merchant, are making a last-ditch attempt to replace the firm’s liquidators and potentially pursue its Australian parent over its multimillion-dollar debt.

GrabOne, also known as Global Marketplace New Zealand Ltd, entered liquidation last month owing $16.5 million. By far the biggest debt was $9.3m to its own parent company ‒ Australian firm Global Marketplace Pty Ltd. The Melbourne-based outfit, which had also triggered the liquidation, bought GrabOne for $17.5m in 2021 with finance from Californian venture debt fund Partners For Growth. Partners For Growth is listed as the sole secured creditor of GrabOne.

GrabOne was a leader in the e-commerce market when it was bought by Global Marketplace Pty Ltd in 2021.

Unsecured creditors, including voucher holders, were owed $3.9m and had been warned not to expect any money back. One of those was the Waffle Haus, which has three outlets in Christchurch and Akaroa. Owner Jamie Stewart said he was about $4000 out of pocket for a promotion from July. The campaign, which sold nearly 1000 vouchers, was to support the latest Waffle Haus, just opened in the Colombo mall.

“I’ve always found GrabOne to be a fantastic way of getting the brand into the market and getting foot traffic,” Stewart said. The July promotion ‒ two waffles for $20 ‒ worked well, he said, and although Grabone was tardy on payments he signed up for a new offer last month. By then, liquidators Calibre Partners had already been engaged by Partners For Growth to review GrabOne’s finances.

Stewart opened the New Regent St outlet, pictured, in 2020. He says he has had to cut back operations at the new Colombo store following GrabOne’s demise.

“We were doing new business two days before [GrabOne entered liquidation]. They would have known they were in trouble. We feel to continue trading when that business is having these financial difficulties is against trading laws they might be exposed to.”

“We don’t know if we’ll get our money back. At this stage we’ve had to write that off but we are certainly pushing for accountability.”

Waffle Haus could absorb the loss, Stewart said, but he has had to cut back drastically at the Colombo store. “Twenty to 60 waffles a day we were making for GrabOne customers. When it stopped overnight I had to reduce my staff levels … because the foot traffic plummeted. It had a huge impact on the business.”

Now, he will support a resolution at the GrabOne creditors’ meeting on Thursday to replace Calibre with a new firm, Waterstone Insolvency. Through his lawyer, Grant Smith, Stewart had been frantically seeking proxy votes from other creditors, which had to be confirmed 48 hours before the meeting. A majority of creditors, representing a majority of the debt, must support a resolution to appoint a new liquidator for it to pass (related party creditors cannot vote). On Tuesday, Smith said he’d received a “handful” of proxies before the deadline. “Given the limited timeframe we weren’t expecting to be inundated.”

Damien Grant of Waterstone Insolvency will address a creditors meeting on Thursday about taking over the GrabOne liquidation.

Smith said because Grabone was placed in liquidation by its Australian parent, which was then able to appoint the liquidator itself, the process called for “a higher level of scrutiny”.

“You’ve got a rapid disintegration of the financial position of a business that was trading reasonably well in Australia. [Creditors are] concerned about whether adequate information was coming back to voucher holders to get refunds.

“There’s significant related party debt. That always needs to be looked at. There’s clearly related party dealings and potentially one of those parties could be solvent.”

Waterstone liquidators Damien Grant and Adam Botterill would attend the meeting on Thursday and address creditors about the resolution to replace.

“[GrabOne] owes millions to its Australian parent, leaving Kiwi customers and voucher holders out of pocket,” Grant said. “All creditors, great and small, are entitled to attend the creditors' meeting and have their concerns addressed. Voucher holders should have been informed that if they purchased vouchers using a credit card, they can likely obtain a full refund from their credit card provider.”

Calibre partner Daniel Stoneman said he and fellow liquidator Neale Jackson had acted on complex insolvencies in the past and were “well qualified” for the GrabOne job. They would be investigating whether the company had been trading while insolvent.

On unredeemed voucher refunds, Stoneman said: “Where voucher holders have contacted us advising the merchant has refused to honour their voucher, we have recommended consumers contact their card provider and also requested that they complete unsecured claim forms.”