OLD FIRM GOES OUT

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 248, 19 October 1937, Page 7

OLD FIRM GOES OUT

MENNIE’S, OF AUCKLAND’ VOLUNTARY LIQUIDATION [ Per Press Association. ] AUCKLAND, Oct. 18. The old firm of J. M. Mennie, Ltd., biscuit and confectionery manufacturers, is to go into voluntary liquidation. This course was adopted at meetings of shareholders and creditors held in Auckland to-day. After a review of the company’s financial position to date the meeting of shareholders decided to place the company in voluntary liquidation. In placing the affairs of the company before the creditors, Mr. W. Goodfellow, a director, referred to adverse factors to which the company had become subject. These included control by the Government of the supply of flour, necessitating the payment of cash in seven days instead of the usual credit terms, the introduction of the 40-hour week, high wages, the obsolescence of the plant, particularly in biscuit-making, and the replacement of the boiler and stack to overcome the smoke nuisance following the granting of an injunction against the compay in the Supreme Court. Mennie’s is one of the oldest biscuit firms in the Dominion, with business connection throughout New Zealand and the South Sea Islands. The founder, Mr. J. M. Mennie, came from Scotland to New Zealand in 1869 and commenced business at Thames in partnership with Mr. W. Dey under the style of Mennie and Dey. Mr. Dey retired in 1884 and Mr. Mennie removed his headquarters to Auckland, where subsequently the business of C. G. Laurie and Co., confectioners, was absorbed.