Retail chain Yoyoso has been placed into liquidation owing millions of dollars, and liquidators say it is unlikely unsecured creditors will get their money back.
By Susan Edmunds for rnz.co.nz
The Yoyoso group includes the retail brands Yoyoso, Miniso and Acecco.
Liquidators McDonald Vague said there were eight shops trading around Auckland when the chain went into liquidation but those would close through this month.
"The liquidators have closed the Northcote supermarket (Acecco Supermarket Limited) location due to lack of trading revenue but continued to trade at the Mt Albert location.
"The Yoyoso and Miniso stores have continued to trade to reduce the stock levels at each of the stores. As stock levels reduce and/or landlords make decisions on the timing of the stores closing the stores will be vacated and closed with the expectation to have almost all stores closed or vacated over January 2026.
"The staff in the trading entities will continue to be employed as needed to assist in trading down the group, along with a couple of day to day management staff."
The liquidators said about $217,000 was owed to former employees for wages, holiday pay and redundancy pay.
So far, $63,000 has been paid to bring wage payments up to date and employees should be paid their entitlements in full.
The liquidators said Inland Revenue was likely to be due $940,000 in GST, PAYE and other payroll deductions. They said they did not think Inland Revenue would get everything it was owed.
Unsecured creditors were due at least $2.1 million, they said, not including contingent claims from landlords or IRD penalties and interest. They might receive zero cents in the dollar, the liquidators said.
Retail consultant Chris Wilkinson, from First Retail Group, said it was part of a general trend in which shoppers looking for things that Yoyoso sold would shop on Temu, AliExpress or Shein instead.
"Generally novelty-type products, party products that people are now able to buy from the source and significantly cheaper. It's product you don't necessarily need, novelty activity."
He said Yoyoso had been able to sustain a large physical presence in the centre of Auckland, on Queen St, before the behaviour change took hold.
"You need significant volumes to drive business and it wouldn't happen, it's not possible under the new way of buying stuff."
Retail NZ chief executive Carolyn Young said it showed how tough it was to be a retailer in New Zealand at the moment.
"It's a reflection of the New Zealand trading market last year. The retail environment was really tough. This is just another demonstration ... a few days ago EB Games announced their proposal for closure. Here's another group where we're seeing a nationwide business in liquidation.
"It demonstrates that businesses have held on and they've held on and they've held on but with no spare cash and trading at a loss you can only sustain that for a certain length of time. These businesses are not seeing the turnaround in the economy come quickly enough for them to survive."
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