Gold Coast cafe Earth Purveyors of Fine Foods closes without warning
A popular Gold Coast cafe run by high-profile chef Ant Ewart has closed without warning.
Earth Purveyors of Fine Foods has been placed into voluntary liquidation by Ant Ewart, who is the former head chef of Byron Bay’s Raes on Wategos and Macleay St Bistro in Sydney. He opened the café in 2017.
Steven Kugel from Insolvency Experts told news.com.au that health issues may be behind the decision.
“There are very few creditors with small money involved but there’s certainly a tax debt that we’re aware of,” he said.
“I understand there are some employees with perhaps small unpaid wages and leave entitlements we’ll assist – when a company goes into liquidation, there’s a Fair Entitlements Guarantee scheme that makes sure employees don’t miss out.
Kugel said the company has no money “whatsoever”, but he will help employees make a claim under the Fair Entitlements Guarantee scheme.
Kugel would not speculate on the cause of the closure but added that the company’s tax debt signalled the business just wasn’t viable.
A creditors’ meeting will be held on November 26.
Sheridan Randall, 8th November 2019
