A luxury Australian caravan manufacturer owes about $40 million to creditors after its sudden collapse last week.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Zone Manufacturing Pty Ltd plunged into administration last week, leaving about 240 staff unemployed and 180 customers in limbo.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Sunshine Coast-based company built premium caravans under the Zone RV brand and continued taking customers’ money until the final hours before it shut down.\u00a0<\/p>\n
At the first creditors’ online meeting on Wednesday, administrators Cor Cordis revealed the staggering extent of Zone RV’s woes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Customers are short about $18 million, suppliers are owed up to $20 million, and employee entitlements are $4 million, while taxpayers are on the hook for $1.4 million from unpaid taxes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cor Cordis partner Rahul Goyal told about 250 individual creditors who joined the meeting that he was still investigating how Zone RV ended up in this position.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“It’s unusual for a business of this size to owe this amount of money,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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A newly installed security camera sits monitoring vans at Zone RV’s headquarters in Coolum. (ABC Sunshine Coast: Josh Dye)<\/p>\n
Creditors in limbo<\/p>\n
Zone RV had an annual turnover of about $70 million and Mr Goyal pained a bleak picture for the majority of unsecured creditors, including suppliers and customers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“If the company was to be liquidated, the chances of getting anything is quite remote,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There are about a dozen caravans parked in the yard of Zone RV’s Coolum factory, with many displaying a “complete” sign.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While most of the 280 employees have been sacked, there are still 30-40 workers employed and some of them are working on vans.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cor Cordis has beefed up security around the premises by adding a large CCTV camera at the gate to protect the remaining assets.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mr Goyal provided a glimmer of hope to a small group of customers who paid their final instalments, indicating they were the most likely to receive their vans, many of which are finished or close to completion.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I want them all out by the end of next week, the ones that are fully completed,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The future is much less clear for the remaining customers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“If you’ve made first and second payments, your caravan is unlikely to be in a production line anywhere,” Mr Goyal said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“If you’ve made a third payment, it may or may not be in production.”<\/p>\n
There are about 180 customers who are owed different amounts of money, ranging from people who have paid a $15,000 deposit to those who are $270,000 in the red.\u00a0<\/p>\n