‘What happened?’ Burger chain collapses into liquidation, 107 staff lose jobs on the spot

All the southeast Queensland stores of the popular Getta Burger chain have collapsed while 107 employees have lost their jobs on the spot.

All the south east Queensland stores of a popular burger chain have collapsed while 107 employees have lost their jobs on the spot.

On Thursday, six companies linked to the Getta Burger chain went into voluntary liquidation.

They operated a number of stores across Brisbane, Logan, Ipswich and the Gold Coast – in West End, Ashgrove, Clayfield, Cannon Hill, Bridgeman Downs, Carina, Victoria Point, North Lakes, Underwood, Capalaba, Springfield Lakes, Holmview, Yamanto and Yatala.

Getta Burger’s head office has been a registered business since 2012 and was headquartered in Bulimba, in Brisbane’s inner east.

The liquidator, Ian Currie of insolvency firm BRI Ferrier, said he closed down 11 stores as soon as he was appointed.

His team attended the stores at opening time on Thursday and informed the restaurant staff their employment was terminated.

“From what we can ascertain, most people were surprised (by the collapse),” Mr Currie said.

Two Getta Burger stores are still in operation and unaffected by the liquidation, in Townsville.

The company’s sole director, Brent Poulter, said it was “an extremely difficult one for me to make - personally and professionally” for him to place the business in liquidation, but he felt he had no choice with the rising cost of living which saw his power bills alone go up by 30 per cent.

Every south east Queensland store attached to Getta Burger has gone into liquidation.

The Getta Burger website is still active, but this error message appears when trying to view the store locations.

Mr Currie said the south east Queensland Getta restaurants had been limping along in the past nine months and four stores had already closed down prior to the firm going bust.

“It’s just Brisbane, it’s South East Queensland that’s been struggling. From what I’m told Townsville is doing quite well,” he said.

According to him, Getta Burger had 107 staff across the liquidated stores, most of them casual.

They are all owed wages from Monday through Thursday, as well as being owed superannuation and other entitlements like annual leave if they were full-time or part-time.

Mr Currie said his phone was ringing “non-stop” from devastated employees.

As well as the debts owed to staff, a handful of suppliers have been impacted, while Getta Burger also owes money to the tax office.

Less than two weeks ago, Getta was posting to Instagram, where it has 22,000 followers.

“Why are all the Ghetta (sic) Burger joints in SEQ say they are permanently closed? What happened?” one customer commented on the franchise’s most recent Instagram post overnight.

“What happened to getaburger (sic),” asked another.

On Thursday night, a Brisbane burger food truck company, Benz on Miller, offered to hire staff who had recently lost their jobs from Getta’s demise.

Brent Poulter is the sole director of all the Getta Burger stores.

Brisbane local Brent Poulter was the sole director of the six companies behind the Getta Burger stores which have gone bust.

“At Getta Burgers, we built our burgers by sourcing the best meat from local butchers, supporting great local producers, and knowing what goes into each burger,” he said.

“Our stores are known for their quality product and great dining experience. In the current operating environment however it was becoming increasingly difficult to meet our great standards and be a successful business.

“We don’t want to cut corners. We don’t want to sell inferior meat and charge the same price. As many businesses know too well, it becomes difficult to carry increasing costs and not pass them on to our customers.”

Getta Burger’s three Townsville stores in North Ward, Idalia, and Kirwan remained open when contacted on Friday.

A staff member at one of the stores, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they don’t know how the closures would impact on their store.

“We have no clue, and we’re still operating. That’s all we know,” he said.

Poulter has had a run of bad luck this year.

As well as Getta Burger losing the majority of its stores, another of his hospitality ventures shut down.

In April, Mr Poulter was forced to close a smokehouse butcher shop he was running called the Low n Slow Meat Co in Morningside because of a spat with the local council.

He is also the director of the remaining businesses in Townsville.

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