The parent company of Karen’s Diner in New Zealand has been put into liquidation.

Viral Ventures NZ, which is responsible for Karen’s Diner, has been placed into liquidation a month after some restaurants in Australia were closed.

Karen’s Diner was an American-styled diner where service staff could act like a ‘Karen' and treat patrons rudely with no retribution. It opened in Auckland's Mt Eden in August last year.

The insolvency firm BWA Insolvency was appointed to Viral Ventures NZ “a few days ago”, said Bryan Williams, principal of the company.

He said he has very limited information on what went wrong with the company.

“The director [of Viral Ventures NZ] has given me very scant information. The background to this is I was only appointed a few days ago, and the appointment was made as he was on a plane leaving Australia off to the UK.”

"At this stage all I’ve done is accepted the appointment, removed the assets with the consent of the landlord from the premises, and will go through the process of releasing that property.”

He said that there are 23 creditors and “up to about $34,000 owed.”

The first liquidation report is due on Tuesday.

By Jess Rayner