Queensland stockfeed firm Nutramix goes into administration

A long-established Queensland rural supplier with Chinese backers has called in voluntary administrators.

Nutramix managing director Matthew Wainwright.

An external administrator has seized control of a long-established Queensland stock feed and supplements company which wrongly claims that it’s fully Australian owned.

Warwick-based Nutramix continues to trade despite the appointment last week of administrator Stephen Dixon from Hamilton Murphy Advisory.

Launched in 2001, the business has a head office and pre-mix plant in Warwick and also operates a mill at Narrabri, in NSW, which makes stockfeed.

Managing director Matthew Wainwright did not respond to multiple requests for comment Monday.

Matthew Wainwright

The Nutramix website notes prominently that it is “one of the only 100% Australian owned and family operated stockfeed and agri-processing businesses in Queensland and New South Wales’’

But records show that the company is majority-owned by a Chinese group and three of the five directors are Chinese nationals.

An entity called Sunten International Investment Limited, which is incorporated in Hong Kong, owns 42 of the 82 paid shares on issue. The balance is held by three entities controlled by the Wainwright family.

Records reveal that two of the Chinese directors were appointed in 2015, with another taking on the role in 2018.

Court documents show that Sunten and one of its executives, Zheng Qiuxuan, each sued Nutramix in late 2018 over alleged money owing.

Nutramix lodged a defence in the two cases, which both remain before the Warwick District Court but appear to be inactive.

Mr Qiuxuan is one of the Chinese directors who started as a Nutramix director in 2015.

He also co-founded a company called Cattlecare Pty Ltd in 2016 with Mr Wainwright, who then stepped down as a director the following year.

Mr Wainwright’s LinkedIn page gives no hint that Nutramix was in trouble or that it was about to bring in an administrator to either reorganise, sell or cease trading the business.

“Nutramix is currently experiencing one of the most exciting periods since our commencement, with the installation of two new feed mills,’’ his page says about the 2017 expansion.

“These mills are fully automated with the latest technology and will provide a vast increase in our production capacities, quality of our products and establish Nutramix as a leader in the stockfeed industry.’’

Mr Dixon did not return a call seeking comment.

Originally published as Queensland stockfeed firm Nutramix goes into administration