Rival business steps in after Brisbane juice company’s $1.6m collapse

A Queensland juice distributor which went bust last month owing more than $1.6m has been partially saved by a rival business.

A Queensland juice distributor which went bust last month has been partially saved by a rival business.

Brisbane-based HRVST ST Pty Ltd trading as Hrvst St cold pressed juices, and Real Friends Food and Drink Supply, plunged into both administration and receivership and ceased trading after racking up $1.634 million in debt to more than 100 unsecured suppliers and staff.

Just a few days after announcing its shock closure, a rival beverage distribution business bought up most of the assets from the collapsed company.

Chris and Lawrence Seaton, the co-directors of fellow Brisbane-based food service distributor Brewing Brands, acquired the HRVST ST distribution business and also Real Friends Food and Drink Supply juice brands earlier this month.

“The arrangement was we purchased all the intellectual property, all the assets. HRVST ST is still in liquidation, we just purchased the brand,” Chris Seaton said, who declined to comment on how much he had spent on the acquisition.

Brewing Brands has taken over the brands of HRVST ST Pty Ltd.

Mr Seaton, in his 30s, has “contacted every single person” who used to work for the failed juice brand and “offered them their job back” to get the operation up and running again, aside from HRVST ST’s management team.

Most of the people on the operational side of the business accepted the job offers immediately while other ex-workers are still “in discussions” about it.

A total of 25 staff lost their jobs when the HRVST ST business stopped trading.

Mr Seaton claims that he received the keys to the business on Friday, and had it back up and running the very next Monday.

“We had a whole team in here over the weekend,” he said. “We were doing orders by Monday morning.”

The Seaton brothers are no stranger to the hospitality scene with more than 10 years of experience distributing tea to local cafes.

Two years ago, they started Brewing Brands, distributing all types of beverages to cafes around south east Queensland and northern NSW.

With the acquisition of the HRVST ST and the Real Friends brands, they have now expanded along the east coast, gaining around 4000 more customers along the way.

“Real Friends was one of the largest independent cafe distributors on the east coast,” Mr Seaton said.

“Being in the game, we felt we were the rightful bidders for it.”

On top of that, he added that his company already had refrigerated vans on the road, which meant “we already had the infrastructure, the systems in place” to take over the HRVST ST business.

HRVST ST supplied its product to more than 50 major retailers and hotels including The Calile, W hotels and the IGA.

In the wake of the business ceasing to trade in late October, Hrvst St cold pressed juices wrote on Instagram: “This is not something we ever wanted to happen but it is with tears in our eyes and lumps in our throats, time to say goodbye”.

The acquisition will give more of a pool of cash to disburse to the 109 creditors impacted.

The Australian Tax Office is owed $255,000 while a further $53,000 has been racked up in payroll tax due to the Office of State Revenue.

Staff are also owed $178,000 from unpaid wages, annual service leave payments and superannuation, rendering them priority creditors.

Alison Harris and Alyse Filipuzzi founded HRVST ST in Brisbane in 2015.

Originally published as Rival business steps in after Brisbane juice company’s $1.6m collapse