Board greedy, says caterer

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33673, 24 October 1974, Page 18

Board greedy, says caterer

A “greedy and unco-operative board” had forced the receivership of Town Hall Enterprises, Ltd, the company’s principal (Mr F. J. H. Visser) said last evening.

“Receivership was the < last thing I wanted, as I will be the biggest I loser out of this. But I! had no option. I just! can’t keep pouring good money after bad,” he said. “Throughout the two years of the contract I have constantly warned the board that the company would crash financially unless the board showed some co-operation, but they have been more interested in rent and hire fees than establishing the catering side of the Town iHall," said Mr Visser. Since the concession was agreed on in October, 1972, he had been billed for $99,444.82 in rent; and by renegotiating rentals in May this year the board had acknowledged it had been too greedy, said Mr Visser. *Tve tried to keep this thing going by leaving outstanding accounts with another of my companies and by pouring in money out of my own pocket. I’ve just shovelled it in to try and keep it going,” he said. Mr Visser cited newspaper reports about losses of his company going back to December, last year, when he was reported as saying that the relationship between the board and the company was “rapidly heading for divorce." “Since then I’ve advanced $94,000 to the Town Hall catering operation through Banks Peninsula Liquor Supplies, a further $30,000 from profits of other businesses, and $20,000 from my own pocket in two lots of $lO,OOO. That doesn’t include the $BO,OOO worth of equip-

, ment, bought and paid for by I me. ; “I’ve repeatedly asked the ' board to employ an outside to verify my ' figures, as they have been entitled to do from the start, but the first time anyone but my own accountants looked at the books was two months ago. “The board also wanted the right to have an outside caterer report on the concession to see that things were being done properly, and this I happily agreed to. But I they’ve never had him in. If (they had done so they would | have been advised months lago by their own man what II have been trying to tell (them from the start. “I had to keep putting (money in because I couldn’t .afford to have the company ■ fail. Now I can no longer | afford to keep it going,” he said. ; Rental from the catering (concession was about a third of the board’s income, but he had received no cooperation. “They made me drop my prices, without getting an outside opinion, because someone thought I was charging too much. That just made it more unprofitable. “But then they increased hire fees for the Limes Room the Conference Room by 100 per cent, without any reference to me. All this meant was that fewer people hired the rooms and therefore fewer people used the catering. So the income from catering went down again, but the rent still stayed the same,” he said. The revised rent ($24,000 a year) was still too much and although the revision had been a help, it was “still too little too late.”