Dicky Bill operated two farms at Maffra, Victoria and Drinan, west of Bundaberg in Queensland, growing leafy salad vegetables and herbs year-round<\/p>\n
The report by Cor Cordis shows suppliers are owed $6.5 million, while another $1 million is owed to 165 staff, but those figures could grow.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Farmers picking spinach at the Dicky Bill Maffra farm.\u00a0 (ABC News: Isabella Pittaway)<\/p>\n
Debts could exceed $10 million<\/p>\n
Restructuring firm Cor Cordis was appointed the administrator for Dicky Bill on December 1.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Speaking to the ABC Victorian Country Hour, administrator Sam Kaso said the debts were “quite substantial”, and could exceed $10 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Trade creditors are owed circa $6.5 million, and we’re still working through the claims,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“It’s quite a substantial amount, and likely as we go through the process, those amounts tend to increase as we have the chance to reconcile the position.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mr Kaso said the first administrators’ meeting was held yesterday.<\/p>\n
Warakirri Asset Management is the owner of the two properties leased to Dicky Bill Australia, at Maffra, Victoria and Drinan, Queensland.<\/p>\n
It has confirmed new tenants for the two farms, and aims to bring them back into full production from January 1 2026.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Dicky Bill summer crops are grown at Maffra, Victoria. (Supplied: Dicky Bill)<\/p>\n
Family business gone\u00a0<\/p>\n
The collapse of the family business has been devastating for its owners, Gippsland-based Ryan McLeod and his wife Tahirih.<\/p>\n
They took on the farms after the death of Ryan’s father, Richard William (Dicky Bill), who founded the company in 1996, supplying triple-washed and packed fresh salads to domestic and international markets.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Dicky Bill supplies salad kits, sold in major supermarkets. (Supplied: Dicky Bill)<\/p>\n
“Our immediate priority is to explore all viable options that maximise outcomes for stakeholders,” Mr Kaso said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It’s understood a substantial amount is owed to secured creditors and finance companies.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A lasting impact<\/p>\n
In a statement made when the company entered voluntary administration, Dicky Bill Mr McLeod said the family worked for months with professional advisors to put forward a plan, with “the full support of our secured creditor”.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“The debt to Warakirri was modest, yet they have taken crops worth many times that amount,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“What has happened here will have a lasting impact on our family and on 182 employees who have done absolutely nothing wrong.”<\/p>\n
In a statement, Warakirri Asset Management said, while restructure options with Dicky Bill were being considered, other creditors of Dicky Bill commenced legal proceedings.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The statement said that Dicky Bill then advised Warakirri that the business would be put into administration.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Administrators for failed Australian salad farm company Dicky Bill have revealed its business debts to hundreds of staff…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":342294,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99,182027,106558,182024,13330,177414,180,64308,132683,189957,29510,189958],"class_list":["post-342293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-cor-cordis","tag-debts","tag-dicky-bill","tag-farming","tag-horticulture","tag-jobs","tag-liquidation","tag-ryan-mcleod","tag-salad-farm","tag-vegetables","tag-warakirri-asset-management"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342293\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/342294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}