Nakumatt woes heighten as another creditor seeks liquidation

The depth of the financial crisis facing retail chain, Nakumatt Holdings Ltd, has begun to emerge after another creditor filed an insolvency petition seeking to recover over Sh60 million.

In the petition seeking the supermarket chain’s liquidation, Gold Crown Beverages (Kenya) Ltd says the supermarket has failed to pay Sh60,738,069.47 in accordance with a joint business plan it signed with Nakumatt to supply goods between March 2016 and February this year.

The company manufactures Kericho Gold, London Fruit and Herb and Baraka Chai tea leaves brands.

It says it has made repeated requests to the company for the payment or part payment of the debt amount but to its dismay, it has failed or neglected or refused to pay the amount.

The company issued a statutory demand on June 2 but the response has been negative.

High Court deputy registrar Elizabeth Tanui ordered the petitioner to advertise its petition and return to court on September 18 to determine whether the orders have been complied with.

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The petition comes barely two months since another company, African Cotton Industries Ltd, also moved to court seeking to recover over Sh70 million due for invoices raised under a commercial development agreement signed with Nakumatt for the period 2016-2017.

Before moving to court, African Cotton Industries Ltd had on April 26 served a statutory demand upon the company seeking to be paid within 21 days. The company had supplied Nakumatt with Snuggles baby diapers but even after talks on normalisation of the agreement, the supermarket chain issued 12 cheques amounting to Sh11,715,923.80 which were dishonoured.

African Cotton is demanding a total of Sh70,910,937.86.

The financial difficulties facing the once thriving company has seen it close some of its branches even and has run into trouble with some of its landlords over rent arrears.