Billson’s Beverages has gone into voluntary administration, McGrathNicol Restructuring has been appointed administrator. The company is family owned, based in Beechworth, Victoria and had been operating for seven years.
In a post on Linked In, co-founder and director, Nathan Cowan said it had been an “excruciatingly difficult decision”.
“Together with the team, we’ve poured our hearts and souls into Billson’s, and we are proud of everything that has been accomplished,” Cowan said.
The administrators, McGrathNicol partners Rob Smith and Matthew Hutton, said they were undertaking an “urgent assessment” of the business with a goal to either sell or recapitalise.
“Our immediate focus is to undertake an assessment of Billson’s assets and work alongside management, employees, suppliers, and customers to secure the best outcome for all parties. We anticipate launching a business sale process imminently, which we anticipate will garner significant interest,” Smith said.
Then first creditors meeting will be on 12 August. For more information click here.
A report in The Australian Financial Review said in early April, the company’s banker, National Australia Bank, enlisted - and funded - McGrathNicol to review Billson’s finances, capital, and short-term cash flow. The six-week review resulted in McGrathNicol being appointed administrator.
Cowan said, “We are shattered by the stress this decision will undoubtedly cause our team, suppliers, customers and fans. We’ve tried everything imaginable over the past 6 months to avoid this situation, including restructuring on two occasions, however we now believe this to be the necessary step for survival.”
Since February, the company has cut around 100 jobs, half its workforce, as challenges started to mount.
“Over the course of seven years, everyone’s hard work and passion has resulted in overwhelming support by people all over Australia and some pretty incredible business growth. Unfortunately, that growth masked several mistakes we made along the way as our systems and processes failed to keep up. We’re ultimately responsible for these mistakes and we know that we have let people down. We are devastated and sorry.
“The challenges we’ve encountered in 2024 have been vast and incomprehensible in scale. We will do everything possible to work through this so Billson’s can emerge more resilient as a business and ready to take on another century.”
The business will continue trading until a solution is found.
