Top chef Shannon Kellam of BCN Event Group reveals all about shock bakery collapse

A top Brisbane restaurateur has revealed what went wrong after his hospitality empire crumbled, opening up on its devastation that led to about 90 staff losing their jobs.

The top Queensland chef whose Brisbane bakery empire collapsed last month shocking customers and those in the hospitality industry has revealed what went wrong and the devastating consequences the closure has had on his mental health.

BCN Events Group, behind cafes Mica in Newstead, Mica Express in Brisbane’s CBD, and King St Bakery in Bowen Hills, as well as production kitchen The Kneadery and cooking school Lumiere, went into voluntary liquidation on May 28 after launching four weeks before Covid struck in 2020.

Shannon Kellam, the owner of BCN Event Group which collapsed, in his restaurant Montrachet, Bowen Hills, on Thursday 20th June 2024 – Photo Steve Pohlner

Chef and owner Shannon Kellam said the business faced one crisis after the next, including multiple Covid lockdowns, a lack of government Covid relief because the business hadn’t been operating for 12 months, and the 2022 floods, which saw the production kitchen lose power for five days, costing the business an eye-watering $350,000.

“From March 2020 nothing was easy after that for us,” Mr Kellam said, describing it as punching his way around a boxing ring for four years.

But the biggest killer for the operation, Mr Kellam said, was never being able to launch his events operation at the Breakfast Creek Lifestyle Precinct, where his central kitchen The Kneadery was located.

The kitchen featured $10.5m in equipment, including $1m in specialist event equipment, that was purchased specifically for the business to run functions.

“The business model when we built everything was … to have the most amazing event space that Brisbane had ever seen on the rooftop,” he said.

Mica at Newstead has now ceased operations. Picture: Liam Kidston

But the event space was never built by the landlord Lei Shing Hong Limited.

“At the end of the day, if the events business was built on the rooftop we wouldn’t be sitting here having this conversation, it’s as simple as that,” he said.

The event space was supposed to bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in revenue, which Mr Kellam believed would have seen the business survive even Covid and the floods.

While he continually pivoted the company to changing circumstances, he said it was never enough to make up for the taxes and growing interest on their debts.

“After four years of flogging ourselves and relentless stress for years, I don’t know if anyone can honestly look me in the eye and say you didn’t do everything you could have done,” he said.

Mr Kellam revealed the decision to call in liquidators was devastating, with about 90 staff losing their jobs.

McGrathNicol Restructuring firm are still working through the liquidation process, and are yet to confirm how much money is owing or to whom, but Mr Kellam said all suppliers had been paid, while some staff were still owed entitlements.

“I got into some really dark places over the last month or so where I just felt that I’d done this thing for the last 31 years for nothing. It was all for nothing,” he said, teary eyed.

“The time you sacrifice away from your kids because you’re so motivated and passionate about what you do and then it all comes back to you, the things you missed out on, thinking you were doing it for the right reasons, that it was all a mistake.”

The closed King St Bakery in Bowen Hills. Picture: Liam Kidston

The chef said he had missed his eldest son’s high school graduation because he was working, as well as other moments in his children’s lives when he had to put the business first.

“That’s been the hard part of the last four or five weeks just thinking what the f*** was all that for because you’ve lost everything,” he said.

Getting him through those dark times has been returning to the kitchen at Montrachet – the award-winning Brisbane French fine diner he bought from restaurateurs Thierry and Carol Galichet in 2015 that he has been running with his wife Clare since.

Mr Kellam arrives at the restaurant at 4am each day, taking care of the bread, chocolates and patisserie, as well as helping out his small brigade of chefs.

“Being back here from start to finish like it used to be and being around the Montrachet team and clientele and suppliers, who have been super supportive, it’s been very refreshing for me mentally,” he said.

The restaurant will celebrate 20 years of operation this Friday, June 21, with the team putting on a special $235pp black tie dinner.

While the chef said the goal was to keep the restaurant around for another 20 years, he revealed current inflationary pressures were making it incredibly difficult with his insurance bill more than doubling this year from $10,000 to more than $22,000, on top of skyrocketing gas, electricity and wage bills.

“With the next minimum wage increase that goes up, baristas on a Sunday will earn $72/hour – it’s madness,” he said.

But with the restaurant in its current lease until 2029, Mr Kellam said Montrachet was here to stay, no matter the challenges.

“We will be navigating Montrachet through the next 12 months, making that our focus and making sure it stays as one of those benchmarks in the industry in the state,” he said.