The cookie may have crumbled for biscuit maker Unibic Australia but a potential buyer has come to the table, just a day after company was placed into administration.
Insolvency firm Lawler Draper Dillon announced on Thursday that Glenn Franklin, Petr Vrsecky and Stirling Horne had been appointed as administrators of the Anzac cookie and biscotti maker.
Unibic ran into trouble because of rising raw material costs and a squeeze on its margins from the supermarket price war between Coles and Woolworths.
On Friday, Lawler Draper Dillon spokesman John Allin said the administrators were already in negotiations with a potential buyer for Unibic.
He said the identity and details of the potential buyer were confidential.
“But the administrator at the moment, Glenn Franklin, is working through all of the issues to do with the administration of the company,” Mr Allin said.
“The (Unibic) staff are still on staff and are they’re being paid.
“If it all goes well, hopefully, there will be a seamless transition.
Mr Allin said it was too early to say when a transaction might be concluded.
“Certainly, it does look like blue sky ahead, and a staff meeting this morning was excellent.”
Mr Allin said most of Unibic’s 170 staff were on paid leave at the moment.
Unibic’s Anzac biscuits are endorsed by the Returned and Services League (RSL), with four per cent of the proceeds from sales going towards helping veterans and their families.
The sale of the biscuits has generated more than $2 million for the RSL.
The RSL was not immediately available to comment.
On Thursday, Mr Franklin had said production at Unibic’s Broadmeadows factory in Melbourne had been stopped but the administrators aimed to keep staff employed until the business was sold.
Unibic chief executive Michael Quinn last month told Fairfax media that the manufacturer had been slugged by a string of “king hits”, with the supermarket price war leaving it unable to pass on rising ingredients costs to consumers.
Mr Quinn was cited as saying the company faced wind-up actions by creditors including ingredient suppliers and a recruitment firm, but hoped to quickly secure a new investor.
