The Kleenmaid Group, responsible for various appliances in the Australian market ranging from cooking appliances to refrigeration and laundry products, has entered voluntary administration and appointed Deloitte partners as administrators.
Kleenmaid had a turnover of $90 million in the year to June 2008, the business has around 2,800 trade creditors who are owed approximately $12 million.
John Greig, Richard Hughes and David Lombe from Deloitte, were appointed by the directors of Kleenmaid and Greig reasons this on the increasing pressure of the global financial crisis.
“The main reason for the appointment by the directors was that the global financial crisis had severely impacted sales and margins, and all attempts by the directors to obtain new financial support for the business have met with no success in the present economic circumstances,” said John Greig.
Greig also emphasised that the first aim of the voluntary administration will be to assess the financial position of the group and to explore the options available.
“The process of voluntary administration is designed to quickly explore the options for the company to ensure that creditors get the best possible return,” he said. “The voluntary administrators will be writing to all creditors shortly to provide notice of the date of the first meeting of creditors.”
The Kleenmaid Group was founded in 1985 and currently has 20 retail outlets located in QLD, NSW, VIC, SA and WA, of which 15 are franchised and five are wholly owned by the company. In addition, there is a warehouse facility in which stocks of finished appliances are kept pending sale, a spare parts business, as well as 30 franchisees providing in-home service throughout Australia.