Three former Retail Food Group executives would be ‘very foolish’ to ignore summons to Canberra for parliamentary inquiry: Senator

THE orchestrator of a Federal inquiry into the franchise sector says three Gold Coast former executives of Retail Food Group would be “very foolish” to rebuff the parliament’s summons for them to front the committee in Canberra next month.

THE orchestrator of a Federal inquiry into the franchise sector says three Gold Coast former executives of Retail Food Group would be “very foolish” to rebuff the parliament’s summons for them to front the committee in Canberra next month.

Former managing director Andre Nell, who left the role in May, former chief executive Tony Alford, who left in July last year sold the bulk of his remaining shares in the company in May, and his partner and former executive Alicia Atkinson have reportedly refused multiple requests to appear voluntarily before the joint committee.

Andre Nell, former managing director, Retail Food Group. Photo: Regi Varghese

The committee - made up of Senators and lower house MPs - have taken the unusual step of issuing formal summonses to the trio, who have been told to appear in Canberra on November 26.

Witnesses who do not comply with a parliamentary summons, are liable to be held in contempt of the Senate, and can face penalties including hefty fines and imprisonment.

Nationals Senator John Williams, who instigated the inquiry in the wake of revelations of RFG’s damaging franchise model, yesterday said the Gold Coast executives had questions to answer over the company’s past operations, but had not agreed to any requests to do so thus far.

“Sometimes they reply, sometimes they don’t,” he said.

“We want the history of what happened because some of the franchisees are in a real mess and we’re trying to prevent it from happening in the future.”

RFG directors have been ordered to appear before the inquiry.

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The Gold Coast Bulletin was unable to contact any of the former executives yesterday.

Mr Williams said in 10 years of involvement in Senate inquiries, he’d never seen parliament issue a formal summons to a witness.

“We write to them and tell them we have the power to summon them and usually they show up,” he said.

“If they don’t show up, they would be being very foolish, that’s my opinion.”

Committee chair Michael Sukkar last week told parliament the refusal of Mr Nell, Mr Alford and Ms Atkinson to appear thus far was “highly discourteous and unusual”, saying it had impeded important aspects of the inquiry.

Mr Nell, was paid more than $1.65 million by the struggling company last year, while Mr Alford was also still on the company books during FY18 and was paid $165,144, despite ceasing employment just three days into the financial year.

Tony Alford. Supplied photo.

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RFG’s share price has dropped close to 90 per cent since December, when accusations of mistreatment of franchisees were publicised.

The company reported a staggering net loss of $307 million for the past financial year.

The company’s struggles have placed significant pressure on its debt position, and it remains under strict covenants with its major lenders, despite them agreeing to waive testing of the covenants for the financial year.

RFG has begun selling assets and has embarked on a turnaround strategy with new CEO Richard Hinson at the helm.