Uniform manufacturing business with $10 million turnover collapses

Victorian uniform manufacturer Kombat has entered administration just before Christmas and administrators are looking to sell the business.

Kombat had a turnover of around $10 million a year and employed over 80 full-time staff in manufacturing uniforms for sporting teams and businesses.

Andrew Beck and Paul Stewart of RSM Bird Cameron were appointed as administrators to Kombat this week.

Beck told SmartCompany all staff were dismissed prior to the appointment of the administrators and RSM Bird Cameron was now looking to sell the business.

“We have people out there. We think we can sell the business as it is, a number of interested buyers have contacted us,” he says.

“We have put in place procedures for orders; we should be able to get their uniforms to them [clients]. It is business as usual while we go through the sales process.”

Beck says Kombat was put into administration as it was insolvent and the reasons for the insolvency are not known yet but the manufacturer did have a lot of debt and some difficulties with suppliers.

“There is a large amount of secured debt which they were unable to pay and they had some trading difficulties with suppliers, a dispute over quality issues out of China,” he says.

Creditors are owed around $10 million, with Investec Bank being the major secured creditor alongside Kombat’s directors, who Beck says “are owed quite a bit of money as well”.

Kombat’s administration follows the collapse last month of clothing and uniform manufacturer Ambassador Clothing.

A first meeting of creditors will be held in Melbourne on December 31, 2012.