The Libelle liquidation

Written By: - Date published: 12:20 pm, March 20th, 2025 - 9 comments
Categories: Christopher Luxon, class, class war, david seymour, education, national, politicans, poverty, same old national, uncategorized - Tags:

The first liquidator’s report on Libelle Group Limited suggests the company was hopelessly incapable of performing its role in providing the National-Act Government’s version of school lunches.

The report is one of the bleakest I have read.

Libelle was contracted to provide 120,000 school lunches each day. It also supplied school tuck shops. Strangely for a catering company it was also a recognised seasonal employer which allowed it to employ seasonal workers.

It had one central manufacturing kitchen where the lunches were made and ten central processing kitchens uses to reheat and distribute the lunches.

The reason for the liquidation is that the company ran out of money. After paying wages on 6 March 2025 there was nothing left.

The Liquidators’ initial assessment of the status of the company suggests that there is precious little to pay creditors. Figures for the value of vehicles, stock and plant and machinery were withheld for reasons of confidentiality but accounts receivable and a related party loan totalled $1.9 million.

Liabilities totalled $14.3 million with secured creditors totalling $8.4 million. You don’t have to be a fiscal genius to realise that some people are going to take a bath.

Deloittes only took the job on because further funds were introduced. Compass advanced funding to meet wage costs and in a rushed contract agreed to take over Libelle’s school lunch contract.

And clearly there is an issue about whether or not reckless trading occurred. On the face of it you wonder why the directors did not pull the pin on the company much earlier.

Events clearly show the problem with driving contract prices as low as possible. Corporates are not good at measuring risk and when large contracts are dangled in front of them will not always make the right decision.

So we have a substandard replacement scheme whose problems are myriad. And it is that cheap that it is driving suppliers into receivership.

Meanwhile schools and teachers unions are demanding that they be allowed to return to their previous suppliers who overall did a tremendous job.

From Yolisa Tswanya at the Northern Advocate:

Education union NZEI Te Riu Roa has called for the Government to allow schools to opt back into using in-school community providers amid the issues around the school lunches.

NZEI president Ripeka Lessels said in a survey it conducted, it was found that almost 80% of respondents were not satisfied with the lunches provided.

“The schools that can use local, in-house and iwi providers are vocal about their love and appreciation for locally provided kai, and the positive holistic outcomes it creates for tamariki [children],” Lessels said.

The survey was carried out two weeks ago and principals and area school kaiako (teachers) pointed out the overwhelming differences in quality between their former local providers and the Government’s new ones. Many children were going hungry rather than eating the new food, which then affected their learning.

“This stands in stark contrast to the new, centralised providers, who have delivered wholly unappetising meals – not to mention the ones that haven’t turned up or have been delivered containing melted plastic or so hot they have burnt children, “Lessels said.

“Schools should have the right to opt out of the Government’s disastrous and dangerous lunch provision and return to their former providers, and not one more school should be transferred to the School Lunch Collective.”

David Seymour thinks that critics are nitpicking. Apparently worrying about lunches being inedible, unappetising, repetitive, or failing to meet dietary restrictions or causing a child second-degree burns is nothing to worry about.

Christopher Luxon previously proposed marmite sandwiches and an apple as the solution. If only poor people could do this. He really shows no idea how entrenched poverty is in Aotearoa.

And Richard Prebble thinks that getting rid of school lunches will help the obesity crisis. Note to Richard a global famine will do the same but I am not sure that this is a good solution.

This shows what happens when you entrust a socially progressive and collective response to clear need to the right. They wreck it, either through complete indifference or malice.

9 comments on “The Libelle liquidation ”

  1. adam 1
    20 March 2025 at 1:14 pm

    They wreck it, either through complete indifference or malice.

    The problem with ideological lounge lizards, they are indifferent, and malice is just another tool to ensure purity.

    Reply
  2. thinker 2
    20 March 2025 at 3:04 pm

    Luxon:

    "Qu'ils mangent de la Marmite Sandwich"

    Reply
  3. Darien Fenton 3
    20 March 2025 at 4:56 pm

    Thank you TS for posting this. In this day and age, we need really good analysis on what the fuck is going on. I think we all know…..

    Reply
    • Incognito 3.1
      20 March 2025 at 5:08 pm

      I’d call it political sabotage, deliberate and intentional – the dragonfly was swatted against the wall.

      Reply
  4. gsays 4
    20 March 2025 at 7:28 pm

    I have to admit a snug grin driving to work when I heard Libelle had gone under,

    New nothing about them, I just lumped them in with Compass, a foreign owned multi national.

    The next day, I heard Vaughn Quio (Principals Association Pres.) speak about the receivership. He mentioned that he knew Johan of Libelle and that he cared about the food he provided. It put a human aspect to this sorry saga.

    People have lost their jobs, the precariat at work.

    Seymour wont like this but for the wrong reasons. As AB and tc point out, there is a reptilian vibe to this whole initiative and people are getting hurt.

    Reply

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