Supie collapse: Donor provides funding to cover wages of affected workers

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An anonymous donor has made a substantial cash donation to help staff from the collapsed supermarket company Supie.

The online business has gone into voluntary administration, owing $3 million.

The Auckland-based independent virtual supermarket launched more than two years ago in a bid to bring more competition to a market dominated by two big players, but struggled to achieve the scale necessary to be competitive and profitable.

Supie group director Sarah Balle made the call to place the company into administration after a key investor pulled the pin on further funding.

Workers were called in for a meeting to learn they had lost their jobs and would not be getting paid for their last two weeks of work or for any annual leave they were owed.

The decision affected 120 people.

Richard Nacey and Stephen White, of PwC New Zealand, were appointed voluntary administrators.

In a statement on Wednesday, PwC said the money that had been donated had been given on the condition the full amount was used to pay employees the wages they were owed.

It expected to pay a substantial portion of all outstanding gross wages and salaries early next week.

However, outstanding holiday pay and other claims might remain unpaid at this stage, PwC said.

Former Supie director Ben Kepes told Checkpoint on Tuesday the online supermarket’s failure was tragic for everyone.

He said he and another director stepped down last Friday because they were not based in Auckland where paperwork would need to be signed and meetings held with the administrators.

He expressed his sympathy for the workers who had been left jobless, but added they were not “actually at the bottom of the food chain”.

Supie’s collapse has also prompted a reaction from National’s deputy leader Nicola Willis, who said she wanted to see a third player in the grocery sector.

“If I do become the minister of finance in the next few weeks I will want to seek advice on how do we ensure that we do get a third entrant into this sector, and it doesn’t have get the sort of failure that we saw here.”

The first meeting of creditors will take place on 9 November.