Nourish Foods, the Australia-based healthy kids’ snacks business, has entered voluntary administration.
In a statement sent to Just Food, the company said it is “saddened” to take this decision which has been put down to a lack of working capital.
The news comes just four months after Nourish, behind the brand Whole Kids, returned to the funding market, looking to add to the A$2.3m ($1.46m) it had raised in the past three years.
Co-founder James Meldrum said the family business is working alongside the administrator to seek expressions of interest for either a recapitalisation or sale of the business.
“Hopefully we can achieve a positive outcome for stakeholders,” he said.
Tim Heesh and Mark Everingham of TPH Advisory have been appointed as administrators of the business.
Heesh said: “The business has been placed into voluntary administration due to a lack of working capital required to support the business. The owners had been attempting to secure a financial investment partner over the past few months. However, time has run out and their working capital requirement became urgent.
“It is not often that a well-established business with reputable and trusted brands like these comes along. The business represents an outstanding strategic opportunity for an investor to acquire a brand portfolio that should ultimately become household names and leaders in the FMCG healthy snack market.”
Founded in Melbourne in 2005 by Meldrum and his wife Monica, Nourish Foods launched the Whole Kids range of organic and allergen-friendly foods with a “mission” to create nutritious snacks for children without the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), artificial colours, flavours or preservatives.
It launched two new food brands – Offbeat and Just Add – in 2023. OffBeat provides plant-based snacks for its target audience of Generation Z and Just Add offers baby food in compostable sachets.
In May, Nourish sought further investment backing, launching its third equity crowdfunding campaign since 2020.
The business, which had almost 600 investors in 2020 and 500 in 2021, was looking for more investors to join with Monica Meldrum saying the company was looking to expand “in Australia and beyond”.
Nourish Foods generated revenue of more than A$23m in the past five years. It said sales were up 27% in fiscal 2022 compared to the previous year.
