A bid to secure an 11th hour buyer for stricken Scott’s Refrigerated Logistics has failed, costing 1500 staff their jobs.
Staff were told late yesterday that they were being made redundant and the company’s assets liquidated.
Scott’s 500 trucks and 24 cold storage warehouses will be sold. Receivers KordaMentha are in talks with potential buyers of these assets.
The Australian reported that Scott’s owes up to $50 milllion in employee entitlements, which will be funded by the government’s redundancy scheme.
The Transport Workers’ Union (TWU) said it is talking to other major operators including Team Global Express, Linfox, ACFS, Ron Finemore Transport and FBT Transwest to maximise redeployment opportunities following the announcement the company will be liquidated.
The loss of Australia’s largest cold chain operator will cause supply chain chaos, said the TWU.
The major supermarkets, however, quickly moved to allay those fears.
“Following the challenges presented this week from Scott’s Refrigerated Logistics, we have worked with our existing logistics partners to ensure the 3 per cent of Scott’s business managed for Aldi now transitions to other logistics partners,” said an Aldi spokesperson.
“As we transition the volume, we will work to minimise any impact to Aldi customers with regard to product availability, and to ensure continuity of product collection from our valued supplier partners.
Coles said it was working to minimise the impact to consumers.
“We are working quickly to transition to our other transport partners and are closely monitoring deliveries across our supply chain. We are working hard to minimise disruption for customers and our farmers and suppliers as deliveries ramp up,” a spokesperson said.
Woolworths said it was working with supplies to “main continued product to our distribution centres”.