Sally’s Zou’s Aus Food company faces being wound up over $400,000 cherry debt to Torrens Valley Orchards
SALLY Zou’s company owes cherry grower Torrens Valley Orchards more than $400,000 for 32 tonnes of cherries and should be wound up for non-payment, the Supreme Court in Adelaide has heard.
- Yesterday: Sally Zou’s company faces being wound up
- Sally Zou is the Liberal Party’s biggest donor
- The mystery $1.2 million cheque
- Sally Zou’s Glorious Foundation
SALLY Zou’s company owes cherry grower Torrens Valley Orchards more than $400,000 for 32 tonnes of cherries and should be wound up for non-payment, the Supreme Court in Adelaide has heard.
Lawyer David Colovic, representing Torrens Valley, one of the state’s largest cherry growers, told the Court that the company had not been paid for the order, made in January, and that Ms Zou’s company, Aus Food Alliance, should be wound up immediately for not paying the debt.
David Elix, representing Ms Zou’s company, said he had only been briefed the day before.
Mr Elix said the debt was disputed, to which Judge Bochner responded: “haven’t you missed that boat?”.
The dispute over the debt is now months old, with the Court hearing that Aus Food Alliance was served with a winding up notice in July, following a statutory demand to pay the debt in March.
Mr Colovic said Aus Food Alliance was seeking the “most extreme indulgence of the Court’’ by asking to be allowed to put its case at this late stage.
Mr Colovic said it was now months after the debt was incurred “without a cent paid’’ and he was served with “about an inch of material’’ just hours before the hearing.
Judge Bochner adjourned the matter for two weeks.
Torrens Valley is a Gumeracha-based cherry company, which traces its history back to 1840 — just four years after the settlement of South Australia, when the Hannaford family established a small farm in Unley.
The company moved to Gumeracha in 1985 to establish its cherry operations.
Ms Zou, who is listed on company documents as living in New South Wales but has in the past spent a lot of time in SA and has donated large amounts of money to the state and national Liberal parties, has a number of companies which are described as being involved in food exports and the resources sector.
She was the focus of attention before the last state election in March after she tweeted an image of a $1.2 million cheque made out to the state Liberal Party — a donation which never eventuated.
The cheque’s authenticity was called into question after it emerged the sum was comprised of figures which made out Premier Steven Marshall’s 50th birthday on January 21 this year.
Ms Zou was the state Liberal Party’s most generous donor in 2016-17, with her AusGold Mining Group donating $316,064, down on the $360,000 the company handed over the previous year.
Ms Zou also made headlines when The Advertiser revealed mid-last year that she had previously set up a company called “Julie Bishop Glorious Foundation” which the Foreign Minister said at the time she had never heard of.
Ms Zou, who is also a large financial supporter of the Port Adelaide Football Club, also set up a company last year called Australian Earthly Paradise.
cameron.england@news.com.au