Noosa Food & Wine Festival and Berardo’s collapse leaves creditors stranded
The collapse of the Noosa Food & Wine Festival has left a storm of discontent for the many local small businesses, particularly restaurants, queuing up for their share of the $801,195.38 owed to unsecured creditors.
Restaurateur and Noosa Food & Wine Festival director Jim Berardo. Picture: Anthony Weate. (Source: News Corp Australia)
The future of the popular festival remains uncertain after the collapse of the company that owned the event and the restaurant Berardo’s. The voluntary administration of Noosa Food & Wine Events Pty Ltd has left not only local restaurants as unsecured creditors but also employee entitlements of $134,316.00. Local restaurateur Jim Berardo is the sole director but not the sole shareholder of the company that operated Berardo’s restaurant as well as the festival since 2011. Administrator Worrells has criticised the company’s internal accountancy and financial controls, singling out inadequate record-keeping in a report to creditors dated June 29. “This was compounded by the fact that the company was operating two distinct businesses within the one structure. The lack of accurate and timely financial reports is in our opinion a significant reason for the company’s current financial position.” Elsewhere in the report the administrator offered this opinion: “It would appear the company would have struggled to demonstrate a position of solvency from as early as (June 30) 2012.”
Source: The Australian, John Lethlean, July 7th 2015
