Employees of online grocer Supie have shed "plenty of tears" after the business was placed into voluntary administration today.
The Auckland-based start-up was founded in 2021 by Sarah Balle in a bid to introduce competition to the country's supermarket industry.
Voluntary administrators for Supie Limited were appointed after the business began facing "cash flow difficulties" when a key investor stopped providing funding, PwC voluntary administrator Richard Nacey said in a statement.
"While sales have rapidly grown over the last calendar year, recent growth has been lower than expected, and insufficient to provide the scale needed to operate profitably in what is a highly competitive industry."
Supie's 120 employees were informed of the decision in a meeting at 9am this morning.
Supie's 120 workers were shocked today to learn they're out of a job and out of pocket (Source: 1News)
Employee Anthony Bunce told 1News after arriving, "administrators took over the meeting to let us know that our jobs — they've just terminated our jobs immediately".
"They also informed us we won't be getting the last two weeks' pay that we had worked. And they also informed us we won't be getting any annual leave payout, so we'll be getting zero cents from the work we have done and anything we were owed, we won't be receiving," Bunce said.
He said the employees wouldn't be receiving the wages they are owed as they were employed under Workerly Ltd., which "has no assets or no money" as it was all held by Supie.
Bunce said the employees are "all gutted" and "disappointed" following the news.
"We're all stressed, we're all nervous. There's been plenty of tears today, lots of hugs. Lots of emotions. We're all just really stressed out and unsure of what to do next," he said.
"No one's spoken to us about any options — basically we've just been told we've lost our jobs and won't be receiving any money."
PwC voluntary administrator Stephen White told 1News it is currently "just trying to figure out what the situation is" and "how to deal with" the remaining inventory.
He added that while it is still "trying to understand" the situation involving the employees who have now lost their jobs, it's understood "there might not be sufficient funds to pay them their holiday arrears".
The business is expected to be placed into liquidation "in the near future" due to insufficient funding, Nacey said.
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