Australia-Meat company collapse owing farmers and agents millions.

AUSTRALIA-MEAT COMPANY COLLAPSE.

THE sudden collapse of Victorian-based meat export company GH Keily, with debts of more than $3 million, has sent shockwaves through the cattle industry.

Stock agents across Victoria, South Australia and NSW are believed to be the biggest creditors of the company, owed hundreds of thousands of dollars for bullocks and cows sold to the exporter in recent weeks.

Documents seen by The Weekly Times show GH Keily owes $3.35 million to various suppliers, making it the biggest meat company failure to hit Victoria since the Prom Meats saga in 2000, which involved estimated losses of $8 million.

GH Keily was placed in the hands of receivers last Tuesday.

Melbourne accountancy firm Pitcher Partners has taken control of the company from sole director Greg Keily.

In information sent to creditors late last week, Gess Rambaldi of Pitcher Partners stated: "I am currently assessing the ability of the company to trade as a going concern and I have ceased operations whilst this analysis is being undertaken."

Moe Meat Packers, owned by Shaun Brorsen, has temporarily closed down due to the collapse.

Brorsen’s business was built on providing a service kill for GH Keily, as well as providing boning room facilities where up to 150 carcasses per day were broken down by staff directly employed by GH Keily.

Mr Brorsen said he was shocked that the company, which first began exporting in 1988 and had decades of solid trading behind it, was in financial difficulty.

"We didn’t realise it was that bad," he said.

"Any meat processor knows how tough it is out there, but now they have pulled the pin and left us in the middle.

"Hopefully we can start up again, I just feel so sorry for my guys.

"They have done a lot of work for me - they are the ones left without jobs."

Mr Brorsen had been forced to lay off 50 abattoir workers, and he estimated a similar number of boning room staff employed by GH Keily had lost their jobs.

Creditors will have to wait until a meeting in Melbourne this Friday for answers over likely payments of debt.

Most stock agents declined to comment on the situation. But saleyard operator Graham Osborne, whose company is involved with regular prime cattle in South Gippsland, hoped the fall-out from the collapse would not severely affect agents and transport operators too.

"It’s hard to get the full scope of it at the moment," he said.

"Certainly there appears to be a lot of money at stake but hopefully, in the case of agents, a lot of it will come under the debtor insurance program."