YouFoodz stoush with chicken supplier over $806,000 in alleged unpaid invoices

A bitter legal battle between Brisbane-based meal delivery company YouFoodz and its former chicken supplier over allegations of unpaid bills for tonnes of meat, has revealed the pair fought over $806,000 in alleged outstanding invoices.

A BITTER legal battle between a well-known Brisbane based meal delivery company and its former chicken supplier over allegations of unpaid bills for tonnes of meat, has revealed the pair fought over $806,000 in alleged outstanding invoices.

Documents filed in the Federal Circuit Court as part of Youfoodz’s debt fight with Sydney-based Cordina Foods Pty Ltd also reveal the extent of the breakdown in the relationship between the two companies, as relations soured over Youfoodz’s deal to buy Cordina’s schnitzels.

Cordina claimed in court that in October last year Youfoodz owed it $806,000 for chicken pieces, marinades and breading manufactured in Sydney and delivered to Youfoodz in Brisbane, as well as for chicken products stockpiled by Cordina, at the request of Youfoodz, and raw ingredients purchased by Cordina ready to make for future Youfoodz orders.

Cordina served a statutory demand on Youfoodz for $533,203 on November 6, last year, court documents state.

The court heard that on September 10 last year Cordina put the Youfoodz trading account on “credit hold due to its failure to make payments on the terms that had been agreed”.

It was withdrawn after Youfoodz paid Cordina paid the full amount, the court heard.

Cordina then served another statutory demand on Youfoodz on March 11, for the remaining $274,000.

In court last Friday, Youfoodz won a legal battle to set aside the demand for $274,000 on the grounds that there was a genuine dispute in relation to the total amount of money owing.

Youfoodz successfully argued the $274,000 related to a stockpile of chicken and a spiced breading mix, and Youfoodz had not placed a purchase order for that chicken.

The two companies entered a trading relationship last year after Youfoodz contacted Cordina in January to discuss a proposal to buy up to 30 tonnes of chicken schnitzels because Youfoodz was “experiencing difficulties with the manufacture” of schnitzels and fried chicken in-house in the Brisbane suburb of Virginia.

The relationship was marred by late deliveries and allegedly quality issues, with each side blaming the other.

Cordina chief executive Louise Cordina told Youfoodz sourcing manager Kevin Marriner that Cordina had “tried really hard” to accommodate Youfoodz short-notice orders for small amounts of chicken but had failed to meet deadlines because some requests were just impossible to meet.

Mr Marriner told the court in his affidavit that some of Cordina’s product was “raw” or had “traces of grease residue” or was the “incorrect weight”, and he said Cordina should have refused his requests early rather than apologise for failing to meet deadlines.

“In my opinion, Cordina Farms bit off a bit more than they could chew. I personally worked four 20 hour days last week, on site in Virginia which included one particular night of me driving a YF delivery truck to the airport myself just to ensure our customers were not let down,” Mr Marriner said to Ms Cordina via email in June last year

“That’s what Youfoodz do to succeed in the industry,” Mr Marriner said in his affidavit.

Mrs Cordina told Mr Marinner that she was “extremely uncomfortable that there is a perception” that Cordina had failed, when she had made it clear her company specialised in large batches of chicken, not small ones.

“Our real failure here is that we’ve tried extremely hard to accommodate when the goalposts have moved and perhaps we should have instead explained that some of the changes to plans just couldn’t be done,” Mrs Cordina said.

Youfoodz argued they had received “a large number of complaints from its customers” about the “quality” of Cordina’s chicken schnitzels used by Youfoodz in its meals and Youfoodz delay in delivering its meals, which it claimed was due to Cordina’s delays.

“I can assure you Kevin, we have many very large partners who put their entire supply wholly within our hands and wouldn’t be able to speak highly enough of our reliability and track record of not letting them down,” Mrs Cordina told Mr Marriner.

The court heard that on September 10 last year Cordina put the Youfoodz trading account on “credit hold due to its failure to make payments on the terms that had been agreed”.

Youfoodz paid “all outstanding amounts” the next day and the account was reactivated, the court heard.

The account was put on hold again in October after Youfoodz did not pay for its August orders, Cordina alleged in a statement to the court.

On October 17, Youfoodz told Cordina it would no longer need to buy their schnitzels because it was making its own, in-house.