GM Homes Renos & Sheds into liquidation owing $328,000

A Geelong construction company which owes more than $320,000 to the ATO may have been trading illegally for years.

GM Home Renos & Sheds went into liquidation in January 2025. Picture: Supplied

A Geelong construction company that claimed to build the region’s “finest steel sheds” may have been trading while insolvent for almost three years before it went under.

GM Home Renos & Sheds Pty Ltd entered liquidation after its debts ballooned out to nearly $330,000.

Australian Security and Investments Commission documents list UK-born Gary Mansfield as the sole director of the company.

Aside from the construction of commercial and industrial steel sheds, the business also advertised that it did bathrooms, pergolas, outdoor kitchens, and decking.

Scott Andersen of Worrells was appointed liquidator on January 23 2025.

In a statutory report to creditors, he alleged that early research indicated the company was insolvent from as early, or “potentially earlier”, than June 2022.

The company started in January 2019, but ran into financial trouble not long after.

Mr Andersen said “significant debt” to the Australian Taxation Office became “unmanageable” in 2020-21.

The following financial year, the business recorded a meagre net profit of $14,000.

By the time of liquidation, GM Home Renos & Sheds owed more than $228,000 to the ATO, as well as $54,000 to Commonwealth Bank of Australia and $44,000 to insurance company Gallagher Bassett.

In the report, Mr Andersen said Mr Mansfield found the crippling debt, coupled with a lack of demand for his services, too hard to recover from.

“The director attributes the company’s financial difficulties to a reduction in available work … as well as difficulties in recovering outstanding debtors,” he said.

“This resulted in the accumulation of a significant tax debt that the company struggled to meet.”

Fortunes started to turn in 2024 for Mr Mansfield after an increase in sales meant the business recorded a net profit of more than $410,000.

However, the report indicated this may have been too late.

Mr Andersen met with Mr Mansfield in July 2024 to discuss a potential insolvency appointment and by December the company had completely ceased trading.

More than 71 construction companies across Geelong and the Surf Coast filed for insolvency in 2024.

Geelong Chamber of Commerce chief executive Jeremy Crawford said high prices and worker shortages were hurting those businesses.

“Really low unemployment … means that there’s not a huge demand on available talent in the area to be looking for work,” he said.

“There are some issues with the cost of building and that has affected the supply chain.”

Originally published as GM Homes Renos & Sheds into liquidation owing $328,000