Employees owed millions after ex-Brisbane Lions sponsor’s collapse

A Queensland-based transport and logistics company collapsed with more than $30 million in debt, creditors have been told as they seek to recoup money owed to them by the Brisbane Lions’ former major sponsor.

Administrators FTI Consulting were called in late last month to wind down XL Express, which had depots across Australia, and hosted an online meeting on Wednesday afternoon with more than 200 creditors.

At that meeting, creditors were told XL Express collapsed with total debt of $32.15 million, including $3.16 million in employee entitlements, $14.12 million to “trade creditors” including owner-drivers, and almost $1.9 million to the ATO.

XL Express managing director Colin Mallory (second from left) with Brisbane Lions chief executive Greg Swann and Lions players Cam Ellis-Yolmen and Grant Birchall at the sponsorship announcement in 2019.Credit: Brisbane Lions

Documents from the meeting, obtained by this masthead, show a total of 196 employees were sacked to reduce costs during the wind-down, with limited staff retained to manage essential business functions.

FTI told creditors a continuation of trade was not commercially viable “due to the lack of funding and the absence of realistic prospects for either a Deed of Company Arrangement or a sale of the business”.

The administrators said they had secured the company’s books and “commenced preliminary investigations” into XL’s affairs. Landlords had also been contacted, as arrangements were made to vacate XL’s depots across Australia.

One of the creditors, an owner-driver who did not want to be named for fear of repercussions, described the meeting as “angry”.

“A lot of people are owed a lot of money, so I don’t blame them,” he said.

The driver said he was owed thousands of dollars and was not confident of a good outcome.

“We know that we’re not going to get much of the money back,” he said.

“…There’s a lot of money that they owe a lot of people, and because we’re unsecured creditors on the bottom of the barrel, we’ll probably get it last. It’s unfortunate, but I don’t think we’ll get half the money back.”

The driver said it had become clear to workers that XL Express had been in trouble for some time – in November, Melbourne-based firm Multani Brothers sought to have the company wound up in the Victorian Supreme Court.

“They didn’t tell us anything about Multani Brothers, and they kept on selling assets,” he said.

“They moved all the people from the XL Express depot [in Archerfield, south Brisbane] to work from home and we were like, ‘what’s going on with it?’.

“They’ve sold the vans, and they sold prime movers and did a lot of things that we didn’t understand, and then they go bust – what is that telling you?”

Comment has been sought from XL Express managing director Colin Mallory who was celebrating a major sponsorship deal with the Brisbane Lions AFL club about 5½ years ago, which resulted in the company’s logo being displayed on the front of players’ guernseys.

“We share similar journeys in that we are both based in Queensland and compete on the national stage,” he said in November 2019, as the sponsorship was announced.

An FTI Consulting spokesman said the next creditors’ meeting would be held “on or before” August 1.

“The administrators’ investigations are continuing in order to identify assets available to satisfy creditor claims and details of those investigations will be included in our report to creditors which will be issued on or before 24 July 2025,” he said.

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