A cake business, which once had its own reality television show, has been placed into administration for the second time.
The collapse of Confectionery Plus, which traded as Planet Cake, follows a string of cake businesses to have recently gone under .
The company collapsed into administration in 2012, but after attempts to restructure the business and keep it afloat failed, administrator Peter George Burton from Burton Glenn Allen was again appointed on July 3.
Planet Cake founder Paris Cutler, who starred as the perfectionist ‘Cake Queen’ in the 2011 Lifestyle Channel show named after her business, has told BRW she is concerned about $93,000 of unpaid superannuation for her staff.
But Burton told SmartCompany there were no assets available to sell in order to compensate employees and Cutler would need to organise compensation personally if staff were to be paid.
“The federal government’s Fair Entitlement Scheme recovers employee entitlements, but does not cover superannuation,” says Burton. “[Cutler] is personally in communication with the Taxation Office to see what can be done there.”
Burton says the company collapsed due to trading losses and an untenable business model.
He says the ATO is Confectionery Plus’s major creditor, with a debt of $136,000. There is also a further $49,000 owed to several trade creditors, on top of the $93,000 in unpaid super.
The first meeting of creditors will be held in Sydney on July 15.
The business once enjoyed widespread popularity and celebrity notoriety, with Cutler famously making Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban’s wedding cake.
According to The Lifestyle Channel’s website for the show, Cutler’s reality show was based on “a race against time to design, create and deliver the most extraordinary couture masterpieces at Planet Cake”.
“Known to her eclectic team of designers and decorators as ‘The Cake Queen’, Paris is a stickler for perfection and her attention to detail leaves no fondant flower unfinished,” reads the show’s website.
Burton confirmed a completely unrelated party has purchased the business name ‘Planet Cake’ and the URL planetcake.com.au and BRW reports Cutler will stay on as an ‘ambassador’, which may involve writing new cake cookbooks or media appearances for which she may be paid.
Kirsten Robb is a former journalist at SmartCompany. Previously, she worked at News Corp as a property reporter for Leader Newspapers and the Herald Sun, and holds a Masters of Journalism at Melbourne University.
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