Food and beverage investor Veritas has been afforded some extra time to present a plan for its unprofitable Nosh supermarket business—at least until the end of the month.
ANZ Bank New Zealand has agreed to extend the deadline for Veritas Investments to either sell or begin winding up its Nosh stores. According to Veritas’ latest statement to the NZX, some ‘potential purchasers’ have approached the investor, and the board is currently discussing a possible sale of Nosh with several parties.
Veritas took on a $5 million funding line with ANZ to buy the Nosh stores in 2014 and has been working to franchise them since late last year, due to a loss of $1.9 million in 2016. Six stores were listed on Trademe with asking prices of $400,000-1.2 million, but the sale attracted little interest. In December, the Nosh store on Constellation Drive in Mairangi Bay was sold to a new franchisee, Phil Mead, just a few days before Veritas announced ANZ’s ultimatum about the chain’s future.
Over the past few days, Mead has decided to terminate its franchise agreement and operate independently, but the divorce is not set to be friendly. “Veritas does not accept that termination, and the parties are in dispute over the matter,” the company said.
Regardless, Mead has already dropped the Nosh brand from his store by removing the signage as well as all existing references, going as far as scribbling over Nosh logos on pricing labels and products.
