OLD AUCKLAND FIRM

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXI, 19 October 1937, Page 2

OLD AUCKLAND FIRM

VOLUNTARY LIQUIDATION IB.v Tpl-Traph —Press Association) AUCKLAND, 18th October. The old firm of J. M. Mennie, Ltd., biscuit and confectionery manufacturI ers, is to go into voluntary liquidation. This course was adopted at meetings of shareholders and creditors held at Auckland to-day. After a review of the company’s financial position to date, a meeting of shareholders decided to place the company in voluntary liquidation. In placing the affairs of the company before creditors, Mr W. Goodfellow, director, referred to the adverse factors to which the company had become subject. These included control by the Government of the supply of flour, necessitating payment of cash in seven days instead of the usual credit terms, the introduction of the 40-hour week, high award wages, the obsolescence of plant, particularly in biscuit-making, and the replacement of the boiler and stack to overcome a smoke nuisance following the granting of an injunction against the company in the Supreme Court. Mennie’s is one of the oldest biscuit Arms in the Dominion, with business connection throughout New Zealand and the Soutli Sea Islands. The founder, Mr J. M. Mennie, came from Scotland to New Zealand in 1889 and commenced business at Thames in partnership with Mr W. Dey, under the. name of Mennie and Dey. Mr Dey re- j tired in 1884, and Mr Mennie removed i his headquarters to Auckland, where subsequently the business of C. G. Laurie and Co., confectioners, was absorbed.