A popular hamburger chain has gone bankrupt, forcing more than a dozen stores to close and more than 100 employees to lose their jobs.
Getta Burger closed 11 of its stores in southeast Queensland on Thursday after the company entered voluntary liquidation.
It is believed that 107 employees were immediately dismissed following the shocking collapse after six businesses linked to the burger joint were forced to close.
Popular burger chain Getta Burger has entered voluntary liquidation, with 11 stores in south-east Queensland forced to close
The burger chain operated stores in various parts of the growing region, including Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Ipswich and Logan.
Liquidator Ian Currie, of insolvency firm BRI Ferrier, was appointed as liquidator when the shops closed on Thursday.
Mr Currie told Ny Breaking Australia that workers were told on Thursday they no longer had a job.
“Eleven commercial stores were closed yesterday and the employment of all employees of those eleven stores was unfortunately terminated,” he said.
He said four other of the company’s stores have already gone bankrupt and he has been appointed to oversee the liquidation of seven separate companies linked to the burger chain.
Mr Currie said no other company stores across Australia were affected at this time.
He said his team is still figuring out how much debt the company has, including unpaid wages to employees.
“There is a significant amount of outstanding taxes and landlord debt,” Currie said.
“Whether they (employees) get super remains to be seen… there is about 1.5 quarters of the super outstanding.”
Workers will make their rights claims through the Fair Employment Entitlement Guarantee Scheme to receive unpaid wages, annual leave and pension.
Most of the staff who have now been dismissed are seen as informal.
Employees are owed outstanding wages Monday through Thursday.
Mr Currie said the stores’ operations have been completed and they are currently in negotiations to sell the land.
“We are talking to a party that may be interested in acquiring the site… but that is just the early stages,” Currie said.
The company, headquartered in Bulimba in Brisbane’s north-east, had been in business since 2012.
The company’s two stores in Townsville are not believed to have been affected by the liquidation.
The chain’s website is still active, but users cannot search for store locations.
The company’s website is still active, but users cannot search for store locations
Two of the company’s stores in Townsville do not appear to be affected by the liquidation
Ny Breaking has contacted Getta Burger CEO Brent Poulter for comment.
Mr Poulter, originally from Brisbane, is also the director of the six Getta Burger affiliated businesses that have closed, as well as the director of the Townsville stores that are still operating.
The company’s Instagram page, which has more than 22,000 followers, has not been updated since the company went under.
Several diners responded to the burger chain’s most recent post asking about the store’s liquidation, while some expressed sadness over the store’s closure.
‘Why do all the Getta Burger restaurants in SEQ (southeast Queensland) say they are permanently closed? What happened?’ one user asked.
“Sad to see them closing and losing staff [their] jobs,” another person posted.
The latest dent in the company’s business marks a difficult year for Mr Poulter at the helm of the company.
He was forced to close Low n Slow Meat Co, a smokehouse-butchery in Morningside, in April after a legal battle with the city council over a ban on the store trading its products in a butchery owned by a multi-million dollar company.
He has also previously closed another catering establishment.
The latest dent in the company marks a difficult year for Getta Burger CEO Brent Poulter (pictured), who has been forced to close several businesses associated with the burger chain