Feast! Fine Foods’ two stores at Central Market, Norwood saved

The future of Feast! Fine Foods retail outlets at the Adelaide Central Market and Norwood has been secured, with a new buyer stepping in, but the outlook for creditors of the failed business is looking grim.

• Feast! update: Employees owed more than $700k
• Feast! Fine Foods placed in administration
• Story of Feast! Fine Foods

The future of Feast! Fine Foods retail outlets at the Adelaide Central Market and Norwood has been secured, with a new buyer stepping in, but the outlook for creditors of the failed business is looking grim.

The Unley and Victor Harbor stores failed to find a buyer and have already shut their doors as have its two Mount Barker butcheries, The Chop Shop and Farm Direct Meats.

It follows the company being placed in administration on December 27.

Administrator Robert Naudi, of Rodgers Reidy, said, at this stage, it was unlikely creditors would receive any of the money owed.

“It’s likely Feast! Fine Foods will go into liquidation because we weren’t able to sell all of the stores,” he said.

“The Feast! store on The Parade at Norwood has been sold, as has the Adelaide Central Market store.

“The rest have closed down including Feast! @ Victor Harbor, The Chop Shop at Mount Barker and Farm Direct Meats, the wholesale side of the business that included a shop front at Mount Barker.

“Feast! @ Unley has also closed, and the landlord has put a new operator in the space.”

Mr Naudi declined to disclose the buyer of the Norwood and Adelaide Central Market stores or the sale price.

Company founder Richard Gunner, who is no longer with the business, was surprised the other stores did not sell, despite challenging trading conditions on the back of surging red meat prices.

Feast! Fine Foods founder Richard Gunner at the Central Market store in Adelaide. Picture: Kelly Barnes/The Australian.

Mr Gunner founded the Feast! Fine Foods business in 2001.

“To see those stores close is heartbreaking, especially for our staff who did a great job for us and would have done a great job for anyone else who bought the stores,” he said.

“I know there’s a lot of uncertainty about beef prices, with a lot of people saying it’s going to get very expensive this year, but I would have thought someone would have had a punt.”

“There were a lot of ups and downs across that period and we were just coming out of a time when beef prices went berserk, which was a huge challenge,” he said.

“With the business, we relied heavily on beef sales, whereas other butchers sell a lot of other meat such as chicken.

“Then when the other challenge came from out of left-field — the Thomas Foods International Fire — we just didn’t have the buffer there, because of the challenges from the previous couple of years.”

Rodgers Reidy will convene a creditors’ meeting by April 1, to be held the first of or second week of April.

Farmers who supplied the company are unsecured creditors.

Producers across SA who supplied Feast! Fine Foods are reporting figures owing of between $25,000 to $150,000.

Mid North farmer Matthew Greenslade supplied Feast! Fine Food with his branded Greenslades free-range chicken from his Riverton property.

“I know a lot of the smaller producers are owed between $20,000 to $40,000,” Mr Greenslade said.

“It’s a very frustrating situation and hurts the business a lot.

“A lot of these sales are done in good faith.”

Mr Greenslade said a hard part of the process was just how quickly it all unfolded.

“When you plan to sell a certain number of stock, and then not being able to move them, it’s hard, because even two to three weeks is a long time to hold onto chickens,” he said.

Barossa Valley pig producer Shaun Blenkiron and his family supplied Feast! Fine Foods with products from their Gumshire business, located at Keyneton.

Mr Blenkiron said the failure of the company was another kick in the guts to pig producers who were already grappling with a profitability crisis on the back of low returns, coupled with high feed costs.

“It’s just so disappointing this has happened, especially considering what our industry has been through,” he said.

“I can’t see us getting any of the money owed.

“The timing of it was also disappointing, to see them go into administration the day after Boxing Day, after so much produce would have been sent in before Christmas. It helped them get through the busy period, but left us out of pocket.”

Mr Naudi said employees’ superannuation payments were still under a cloud, and would depend on what happens with the liquidation, but all other entitlements had either been met or would be covered under the government’s Fair Entitlements Guarantee.

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