A Melbourne company goes out of business, owing $1.9 million to 75 customers.
Dozens of customers lost money when a business in Melbourne went out of business. The phones were the first sign that something was wrong.
A Melbourne business that owed $1.95 million to 140 creditors has gone out of business. The business's director is "overwhelmed" by the business's failure, the liquidator said.
Blinds City said on its website that it was Australia's leading online store for DIY window blinds, shutters, and other window coverings.
But since it went out of business, 75 customers are owed a total of $142,000 because they paid a deposit but didn't get their goods, the liquidator told news.com.au.
On August 1, Eddie Muscat of Mayfields Business Advisors was named liquidator.
Mr. Muscat said that the company's failure has also hurt 12 employees who are still owed money.
He said that he is still collecting evidence to figure out what went wrong with the company.
He told news.com.au, "The director is so upset about the failure that he has not yet given the required information by law."
"On August 19, we came to a deal with the landlord that will let the liquidator get the books and records from the building and deal with the customers whose goods are there."
If the director is still unwilling or unable to help, the liquidator will ask ASIC (the Australian Securities and Investments Commission) for help.
Several customers have said on a review site that they are out of pocket by thousands of dollars.
Others said they had waited weeks for blinds to be installed, only to find out later that the company's phones had been turned off.
The website and social media pages for Blinds City have been taken down.
'Massive rise' in company collapses
It's not a secret that there has been a "massive rise" in Australian companies going out of business, but new research shows that since April, the number has jumped by a huge 50%.
Dozens of construction companies have gone out of business this year because of problems with the supply chain, a lack of skilled workers, rising prices for materials and logistics, and extreme weather.
Tech companies in Australia are also having a hard time, and investors are scared off by big drops in valuations, which makes it harder to get money.
The latest tech company to fail was an e-sports company in Melbourne called Order. It raised $5.3 million in funding last year, but it went out of business last week, and liquidators are trying to sell it quickly.
Then there was an Australian tech company called Metigy, whose sudden collapse earlier this month left its employees "shell-shocked." The company had planned to raise money with a valuation of $1 billion, but it went bankrupt instead.
Australia's first new bank, Volt Bank, which opened in 2017, failed last month, putting 140 people out of work and telling 6,000 customers to get their money out as soon as possible.
From delivery start-ups to brands with a lot of influence,
The grocery delivery service Send went out of business at the end of May after spending $11 million in eight months to try to stay in business.
A food delivery service in Victoria, Australia, that wanted to compete with UberEats and Deliveroo shut down in July because it wasn't making enough money. It had made more than $6 million worth of deliveries since it started in 2017 and had 18,000 customers.
There was also a popular online eyewear store in Australia called Soda Shades. It went out of business owing $2.3 million because the Covid-19 pandemic made the market tough.