Entrepreneur Fleur Trickey has wound up her Redzed gourmet cookie business on the Gold Coast

A gourmet cookie maker on the Gold Coast has gone bust after nearly 20 years in business, falling victim to pandemic pressures.

HOW THE COOKIE CRUMBLES

She cleared plenty of hurdles to develop her gourmet cookie business on the Gold Coast.

In a near 20-year run, Fleur Trickey overcame finance, logistics and even flooding dramas to build up her Redzed enterprise based at Arundel.

At its peak, the company supplied more than 500 cafes and hospitality outlets between Brisbane and northern NSW. It also specialised in corporate gift lines and online packages delivered direct to the public.

But COVID-19 proved to be a foe too tough to handle.

The business, first launched in 2002, announced the temporary cessation of production early last year as the lockdown started to bite.

Fleur Trickey

“As there is no indication of when our industry will be able to begin to open the doors, we have decided that we need to remain closed until this period of uncertainty lifts,’’ she told clients via the Redzed website.

Despite the easing of restrictions now and the imminent arrival of a vaccine, Trickey pulled the plug on her baby this week.

She tapped bean counters Michael Dullaway and Mark Pearce, from Brisbane accounting mob Pearce & Heers, to serve as liquidators. They did not return a call seeking comment on Thursday.

Trickey, who also did not respond to a request for comment, remains in the food game despite the demise of Redzed.

She currently serves as boss of EyeOnRisk, a consultancy focused on “food safety solutions’’ for the hospitality sector, and co-founded a business called “Food EcoSystems’’ last year.

Trickey has also immersed herself in the byzantine world of blockchain digital records through a joint venture with Veridoc Global.

She even describes herself on LinkedIn as a “global blockchain translator,’’ although what that actually means is anyone’s guess.

PIECE OF PARADISE

People with money to burn just can’t get enough of this primo street on the Sunshine Coast.

One of Australia’s top fund managers, Wilson Asset Management boss Geoff Wilson, has just splashed out $6.5 million for a beachfront sweet spot on Seaview Terrace at Sunshine Beach. The five-bedroom home last traded for a mere $525,000 in 1990.

Geoff Wilson

Media identity Karl Stefanovic nabbed a pad on the street last year for a comparably modest $3.6m.

GAME OVER?

Is it game over or not?

We learned this week that Brisbane-based Ace Comics and Games had gone bust after more than 20 years of trading.

Sole director Ian Gould and four of his co-owners tapped a liquidator to wind up the business, which operated from an arcade in Annerley and previously had an outpost in the Queen Street Mall.

Gould couldn’t be reached for comment but, rather curiously, the store was still trading when City Beat called on Thursday.

One of the Ace co-owners, Glen Ungerer, told us that plans are afoot to keep the venue open and have it carry on under a new name.

But he declined to divulge further details and liquidator Grahame Ward did not respond to a request for comment.