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Source: ONE News
Sydney-based babywear company Bay Bee Cino has been placed in administration, just three years after undertaking a capital raising and unveiling plans to grow aggressively through franchising.
The company, which operates a prominent online store, Bay Bee Cino, lists a bricks-and-mortar Auckland shop at Newmarket on its website.
It also has two retail outlets in Sydney and a shop in Tasmania.
An owner of the Newmarket store, Ben Lightfoot, says the Auckland business is New Zealand owned and operated.
Its main exposure to the chain's problems will be through any sale of the brand name, he says.
In 2008 the shop was named as a "Top Shop" in a New Zealand Retailers' Association competition.
The parent company was founded by Di Baker and Fred Van Urk and focused on high-end baby and toddler clothes.
In 2008, Baker said the company boasted a network of 500 "consultants" selling through a party plan model and told maternity magazine Cosmo Pregnancy that the company had annual sales of $AU4 million ($NZ5.2 million).
The business is now in the hands of administrator Manfred Holzman of insolvency firm Holzman Associates, who told business news website SmartCompany on Monday that it appeared the business was too small for its overheads.
"I just don't think they had enough outlets."
Holzman has suspended the online store and says his current focus is disposing of the stock on hand through a company store in Sydney's Double Bay.
He would then look at selling the brand name.
"We will be seeking expressions of interest in the next week or so."
Holzman says while there are only a small number of creditors, the amount owed - more than $AU4 million ($NZ5.2 million) at this stage - is large for such a small business.
The company conducted a capital raising in 2007 with Investorlink Securities.
According to Bay Bee Cino's website, this resulted in Aust-China Private Equity Fund investing in the business, apparently to fund an aggressive expansion strategy.
"We plan to open 20 franchise stores by the end of 2009 and would like to expand globally," Baker told Cosmo Pregnancy in late 2008.
"We're also currently developing baby formula for export to the Chinese market."
Holzman expects to have a report for creditors prepared in three weeks.
