Business supply manufacturer collapses

A New South Wales-based manufacturer of ecologically friendly products for workplaces has collapsed into administration.

Steven Gladman of Hall Chadwick was appointed as administrator of Ecoworkz Australia on October 1. The first meeting of creditors is scheduled to be held in Sydney on October 14.

Edwin Narayan of Hall Chadwick told SmartCompany Ecoworkz Australia is no longer trading, but it is unclear if other entities connected to the company are still trading.

Narayan says Hall Chadwick is yet to receive Ecoworkz’ accounts and so the administrators are unable to comment on the company’s turnover or the reasons for the collapse.

Ecoworkz produced cleaning and hygiene products for the industrial and hospitality industries, as well as a range of animal health products for the poultry and horse breeding industries and commercial horticulture and home garden products.

According to the company website, Ecoworkz was established in 2009 and had access to “the use of internationally-patented technology” in insect and disease control in a range of applications, including agriculture, organic insecticides, water treatment and waste recycling.

At one point the company had manufacturing facilities at Penrith and Castle Mountain at Quirindi and a joint venture with the Papua New Guinea government to distribute its products in the PNG industrial, horticultural, mining, agricultural and hospitality sectors.

The Ecoworkz website also states the company produced ecologically-friendly products “that have been successfully marketed under the labels of other, major companies and sold through leading retail stores”.

It is unclear when the company’s financial troubles began, with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission publishing a notice on December 17, 2013, that it proposed to deregister the company under section 601AB of the Corporations Act.

The notice gave ASIC permission to deregister the company on February 17, 2014, or two months after the publication of the notice.

According to the corporate watchdog, it will generally seek to deregister a company under section 601AB if the company has not paid its annual review fee for at least 12 months or has not responded to a company compliance notice within six months, has not lodged any other document in the last 18 months and ASIC has no reason to believe it is carrying on business.

But Narayan says it appears that matter “was taken care of” and the company was not deregistered as Hall Chadwick did not encounter any concerns when filing its documentation in relation to the company.