Ready meal service wins stoush over $210,000 chicken demand

One of the most popular meal delivery companies has won a Federal Court dispute over a payment to a supplier.

A WELL-known Brisbane-based meal delivery company has won a legal battle to set aside a $210,000 statutory demand for payment by its chicken supplier in court today.

Youfoodz was served with the official demand for payment by Sydney-based Cordina Foods Pty Ltd on March 11, and rushed to the Federal Court to fight it.

Youfoodz successfully claimed in a court hearing in Brisbane today that the “existence” of the debt mentioned in the statutory demand was “genuinely disputed”.

Registrar Murry Belcher this afternoon ordered the demand be set aside because there was a genuine dispute in relation to the total amount of money owing.

Barrister Paul Jeffery, for Youfoodz, submitted that Cordina’s demand was based on food orders which had been “deemed to be cancelled” because “no formal purchase order” for ingredients was made by Youfoodz.

“There’s a very formal process in place for orders,” Mr Jeffery said.

Youfoodz wins court battle

He said Youfoodz’s normal procedure would be to submit a written purchase order to Cordina for bulk supply of goods, then Cordina would deliver and Youfoodz would pay after delivery.

“At no times did (Youfoodz) accept any deliveries without a written purchase order,” Mr Jeffery said.

James Hastie, counsel for Cordina Foods, told Registrar Murray Belcher that he opposed Youfoodz application to have the demand for payment set aside because the food orders were placed on May 23 and May 25 last year.

“What was being ordered here was stockpiles of goods to meet 4-5 weeks of future demand,” Mr Hastie told the court.

He submitted that one invoice was for “marinade, breading and crumbing” and a second was for $210,000 worth of chicken.

Mr Hastie said a senior executive at Cordina had sworn an affidavit saying a YouFoodz staffer asked her “to order all of the ingredients required for full scale production”

“I agreed to do this on the basis that (Youfoodz) would take responsibility for the costs of those ingredients, should the product not proceed,” she said.

“We agreed that the size run would be 1000kg and we proceeded to manufacture that product in mid-July, and when we asked (Youfoodz) to pay they refused to do so,” she said in her statement read to the court.

Under company law, after a statutory demand is issued a debtor company has 21 days to dispute the debt, pay it, or ask the creditor to withdraw it.

If it fails, the company is presumed to be insolvent by law.

Youfoodz operates out of a factory in an industrial area in Virginia, in Brisbane’s northern suburbs.

Started in 2012, Youfoodz ready-made meals are now stocked in 3000 IGA’s and petrol stations around the country and it delivers online orders of $50 or more to customers in all metro areas in Australia.

Cordina supplies chicken products including kebabs, roasts and marinated portions to Coles as well as IGA, Foodwords and SPAR supermarkets.

Youfoodz largest shareholder and sole director is New Zealand-born Karl Arthur Giles, 32, from Ashmore on the Gold Coast, company records show.

His father Arthur John Giles, from Reedy Creek, is the second largest shareholder, followed by Youfoodz chief financial officer Jennifer Dowery and another shareholder.