Former F45 on Sydney’s Northern Beaches owes tax office $1m in latest collapse in fitness chain
Creditors will decide if a company that operated an F45 gym should be placed into liquidation after it collapsed owing more than $1m.
QLD Business
Don't miss out on the headlines from QLD Business. Followed categories will be added to My News.
The tax office is likely to receive just a fraction of the million dollars it’s owed from a former F45 gym on Sydney’s northern beaches.
The company, named Barebods, traded as an F45 Training gym in Narrabeen from 2015, before it shut its doors in 2023.
It was one of a number of gyms in the popular chain which have closed amid financial turmoil across NSW, Victoria and Queensland.
Barebods went into administration last month, after the ATO filed a winding up order against a related company with the same director.
Skye Pomponio was the sole director of Barebods, while her husband Brendan Pomponio was a former director from 2015 to 2019.
She was also the sole director of investment vehicle BS Pomp, which the ATO filed a winding up order against in the Federal Court in March.
Barebods and BS Pomp owed a combined $1.6 million to the tax office, according to documents lodged with ASIC.
The sole shareholder of both Barebods and BS Pomp is a company named Pomp Family, which is solely directed by Mr Pomponio.
Barebods was responsible for the bulk of the tax debts, with about $1 million owed, said the report by administrator Sule Arnautovic of Salea Advisory. It owed a further $178,210 to other creditors.
The ATO filed a winding up order against BS Pomp in the Federal Court, on March 11.
Both Barebods and BS Pomp may have traded while insolvent from at least June 30 2022, the administrator’s report said.
It added that, although Barebods stopped trading in 2023, its ATO debts continued to increase, as a result of distributions from the Pomponio Family Trust.
As a result, Mrs Pomponio may have also breached her director duties, the report said.
“The director was likely aware of the companies’ poor financial status for a significant time before the (administrator’s) appointment, however continued to incur debts and trade despite knowing it was unlikely they would be in a position to repay all of the amounts owed to the ATO and other creditors,” the report said.
Barebods recorded a net loss of $98,498 in the current financial year, but the report noted in the 2024 and 2022 years where it managed a profit, it had been due to distributions from the Pomponio trust, rather than gym membership fees.
“Barebods would have incurred a trading loss if the distributions were excluded,” it said.
In a meeting next Thursday, creditors will decide if the companies should be liquidated, but the administrator has advised against it.
Instead, they could agree to sharing a pooled fund, under a Deed of Company Arrangement (DOCA), that would be personally guaranteed by the Pomponios.
Under the deed, Mr Pomponio would be obliged to pay back a loan from Barebods of $123,562 and the couple would also pay $400,000 to the pooled DOCA fund.
Unsecured creditors would be expected to receive 22 cents per dollar owed under the deal.
“Based on the net asset position of Ms Skye Pomponio and Mr Brendan Pomponio, it appears there would be sufficient funds available from these parties to pay the pooled DOCA fund in full,” the report stated.
The ATO is expected to receive $361,182 if creditors accept the arrangement.
In contrast, liquidating the businesses would only give it about a quarter of that, $90,235, the administrator warned.
News Corp contacted Mrs and Mr Pomponio for comment, only to be asked to call Matthew Brown, founder of the companies’ external accountant YourCorner360.
He said Barebods was not Mr Pomponio’s company, and that the couple did not want to comment.
Partnership engineered for wastewater success
Queensland’s reigning Professional Engineer of the Year Sascha Kurz’s company IPS has joined forces with two other major water infrastructure specialists to shake-up the sector.
Maggie Beer Holdings sells Paris Creek Farms for huge loss
The gourmet food company inspired by celebrity chef Maggie Beer has sold a struggling dairy business, but only after accepting a huge multimillion-dollar loss.