Wellness on the rocks: Drip IV Australia shuts down amidst staff wage claims and tax issues

A wellness company headed by an award-winning business woman and embroiled in controversy for months has now come to an end. SEE THE DETAILS

An intravenous health drip operation facing multiple staff claims of unpaid wages and super is in liquidation.

Drip IV Australia was wound up on Friday after court action by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) and small business lender Bizcap.

The Federal Court of Australia ordered Drip IV be wound up in insolvency after the ATO Deputy Commissioner filed a claim in March seeking payment of $420,880 in alleged outstanding taxes.

Receivers had been appointed to Drip IV Australia on January 30 by Bizcap over an unpaid loan agreement.

Five days prior to the ATO application Drip IV Australia director Kristie Baird was ordered to attend court over an alleged debt of $154,385 to Adelaide company Infinity Custom Pharmaceuticals. It has been adjourned twice and a hearing was set for July 16.

Kristie Baird

Liquidator SMB Advisory managing principal Alice Ruhe said it was too early in the initial phase of gathering and verifying the necessary information to provide detailed information about outstanding creditors, the financial position of the company, or any potential outcomes of the liquidation process.

Gold Coast-based former staff of Drip IV Australia have claimed Ms Baird – the 2021 Entrepreneur of the Year, 2022 Business Woman of the Year and 2023 Business News Australia Trailblazer of the Year – owes them thousands in wages and super, the Bulletin revealed in February.

One staffer claimed they were owed $9000. Another claimed they were owed $3000, a third claimed they were owed $6000 in unpaid wages and unpaid leave, a fourth claimed they were owed one month of pay and a fifth claimed they were owed $11,400 in wages and super.

Former Drip IV New Zealand employee Jesse Hylands claimed he was owed $21,400 after he won an unfair dismissal case with New Zealand’s Employment Relations Authority (ERA) in 2022.

Drip IV Australia models/patients. Picture: Facebook

At the time, Drip IV rejected all the staff claims as “false and damaging” and a company spokesperson said it would address them all once legal action was complete.

Following the former Gold Coast staff claims, the Gold Coast Public Health Unit confirmed documents and medications had been seized from the former Burleigh Heads premises following a complaint in 2022. The unit would not reveal the result of the now-closed investigation, but confirmed it had taken documents and medicines through its powers under the Medicines and Poisons Act.