Liquidators have closed the South Island operations of home-based child-care service Easy Mind, with the loss of more than 60 jobs and leaving up to 200 Otago and Southland families needing to find alternative care arrangements.
While the liquidation was announced on January 11, with the intention of selling the business, liquidators gave southern staff 30 minutes' warning about 7pm last night that they had lost their jobs, before sending a press release to media outlets.
"Unfortunately, it was not possible to complete a sale of the South Island Easy Mind business and assets within a short time frame," liquidator Tom Rodewald said in statement.
Mr Rodewald was unavailable for an interview, having said in the statement that Easy Mind ceased to provide South Island services at 5pm yesterday as liquidators were "unable to secure the short-term cash required to pay staff and educators".
Easy Mind assets in Hawkes Bay, Palmerston North, Feilding and Gisborne had been sold to Scallywags Sprouts In-Home Childcare, while sales still being negotiated for Waikato and Coromandel were expected to be completed today.
Dunedin-based Easy Mind southern development manager Sharon Castle, who had been with the group for three and a-half years, said there had been no communication from the liquidators during the past week and she was "gutted and disappointed" by the outcome, for families and staff alike.
"Everyone in Dunedin, and all around, had worked so hard to make this [business] a success," she said when contacted.
Child-care services around Dunedin had fielded numerous calls during the past week from parents looking for alternative care and from educators seeking work, Ms Castle said.
The Otago Southland area, including Dunedin, Central Otago, Gore and Invercargill, were considered Easy Mind's second largest area of operations and Otago its fastest growing region, she said.
In Dunedin, there were eight administration staff and the liquidation would affect about 55 educators across the South Island and affect 160-200 families across Otago and Southland, Ms Castle said.
