In the wake of a national manufacturing company’s collapse, its liquidator says the case is “unusual and complex” and compensation for customers will be a lengthy process.
Mooloolaba’s Transportable Shade Sheds (TSS) went into liquidation on Monday, April 3, reportedly leaving hundreds of customers either without product or half-delivered orders.
It had factories at Beerwah and Coolum, and an office in Mooloolaba.
Related story: Staff devastated as company goes into liquidation
An email was sent to all staff on Saturday, April 1, informing them not to come into work on the Monday, along with the details of the liquidator, Robson Cotter Insolvency Group.
Many staff members were left devastated by the news.
The business started in 2002, with Robert and Kylie Salomon taking over as owners in 2020.
Liquidator Bill Cotter said his group contacted about 60 TSS and affiliated staff on “day one” with instructions on how to lodge their compensation claims.
Former TSS senior sales technician Terry Coe said he lodged his fair entitlement guarantee (FEG) claim shortly after the company’s collapse.
“They told me it could take more than 16 weeks and that I probably wouldn’t get all of it, because of paperwork with missing information that was handed in by Rob (Salomon),” he said.
Mr Cotter said the compensation process for former staff was still ongoing and was basically “out of their hands”.
“FEG covers everything except for superannuation … it’s a government scheme to make sure people get money in their hands quickly,” he said.
“Once all former staff have lodged their forms, we deal with FEG and (the Office of) Fair Trading to get the money out and into people’s hands as soon as possible.
“The FEG process is designed to be pretty quick, but they would certainly have a backlog of claims at the moment.”
TSS dealer Carey Kent says he has been forced to sell off his personal assets after the collapse left him $90,000 out of pocket.
“I had about 13 customers waiting on sheds and now I have to find $90,000 to give them a refund,” Mr Kent said.
“This has been a massive hit financially. Selling off my personal assets is my only option. My other option would be to go bankrupt.
“If I can sell my boat that would cover 85 to 90 per cent of those debts and get everyone’s money back to them.”
Mr Cotter said he’d had limited contact from the Salomons, with reports they had left the country.
“We have had some communication,” he said.
“I’ve heard the same stories that others have – that they’ve gone overseas – but I haven’t heard of or seen any confirmation or contradiction of that.
“The communication has certainly been very limited and it’s quite unusual for circumstances like this. The directors not being there on day one of the appointment to assist and to try and unravel things is unusual.”
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While the exact amount of money being owed was still unknown, Mr Cotter said his group was working hard to establish the figures.
“The affected customers is certainly a difficult area as there’s a range of circumstances,” he said.
“There’s people that are mid-stream on getting an order completed, or some people may have paid a deposit.
“Some people might have paid in full, some people may have got half of their delivery and some may have not got any of their delivery. We’ll continue to go through those and we’re obviously having lots of people contacting us.”
He said whether the customers would be reimbursed and how much depended on what happened in the liquidation process.
“It depends on what we get when we sell the assets and until we collect debtors,” he said.
“It is a lengthy process and the unfortunate reality is that in many cases the returns aren’t great.”
Mr Kent said he was saddened by the collapse of what he called “a great company”.
“I didn’t fully believe it at first, maybe I didn’t want to believe it,” he said.
“But once I realised that it was actually happening, I just had to go on the damage control.
“I contacted my customers and advised them of the situation and guaranteed them if they were patient and understanding with me, I can get every penny back to them out of my own pocket.
“All of my customers have been really good about it.”
As soon as he received the news on the Monday morning, Mr Kent rang Robson and Cotter Insolvency Group to discuss what would happen next and be added to the creditors list.
“My priorities and focus are my customers and I don’t want to make them wait for any potential possible funds that I may or may not receive back from the liquidators,” he said.
“At this point I’m not really holding my breath for anything, if and when it will eventuate, anything I get back will be a bonus.
“By the time they take their cut and pay the secured creditors and don’t think there will be anything left in the kitty.”
Robert and Kylie Salomon did not respond to SCN by the time of publication.
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