Made Establishment administrators KordaMentha say the group could be broken up as they look for a quick sale.
Administrators Craig Shephard and Leanne Chesser spoke at a press conference on Monday and confirmed they were seeking buyers to take over leases and make “fair and reasonable” offers for plant, equipment and stock.
There has already been much buzz about the acquisition of Made Establishment’s 12 venues, which include Hellenic Republic, Gazi and Elektra, with 10 to 15 figures making inquiries about different brands.
Shephard says the Jimmy Grants chain has received interest along with individual restaurants including the newly launched Crofter Dining Room, which was fronted by Matt Wilkinson.
Wilkinson could be a potential buyer for the restaurant, with the chef writing the doors were “slightly closed for a while but hopefully open soon” on Instagram.
“The Jimmy Grants chain, we’ve got some interest in those venues as a package, and then we’ve got interest in [buying] a couple of restaurants or individual restaurants,” says Shephard.
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But buyers need to be quick – the administrators are looking to seal the deal by the end of the week.
“I think it’s in everyone’s best interest to move quickly and hopefully enable someone to grab the keys and re-open in some way,” says Shephard.
All 12 venues have remained closed since George Calombaris announced Made Establishment had entered voluntary administration on Monday.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has weighed in on the matter, saying Made Establishment workers were back-paid due to the Fair Work Ombudsman’s involvement.
“In the Calombaris matter, workers have been paid $7.8 million of wages they were owed thanks to the work of the government regulator,” Mr Morrison said in Parliament on Wednesday.
Mr Morrison also said the Coalition had invested had invested $60 million in funding in recent years “so they [Fair Work Ombudsman] could go and do their job and ensure that workers who’d been dudded their payments would get their payments”.