Three days before Kleenmaid went into voluntary administration, it tried to sell off more than 80 appliances through an online auction house.The auction of 86 appliances on Grays Online included cooktops, washing machines, rangehoods and vacuum cleaners.It began on Monday, April 6, and ran until 7.30pm on Thursday, April 9 - just hours after administrator, Deloitte, took over the company.
Are you affected? Leave us a message below, or email us Kleenmaid turns to YouTube to address customersBut unlike the 6000 or so Kleenmaid customers who are owed a $27 million share of the company's $73 million in debts, the Grays Online customers will be able to take home their goods. Grays Online spokesman Mark Keogh told the Mercury yesterday, the online auction house would even offer the customers who bid and won the appliances a 12-month warranty.Mr Keogh said further details regarding the warranty policy would be released today.Of the 86 appliances up for auction only six were sold, Mr Keogh said. Some buyers had already collected their goods from Grays' Sydney warehouse in Homebush. "Any stock that was unsold is just sitting here and we are waiting for instructions from the administrator on what to do," Mr Keogh said."We don't even own the stock - we sell it on consignment."Mr Keogh said in the past Grays in Sydney had only ever sold 15 items for Kleenmaid, but a lot more products had been sold through their Melbourne office."It is unfortunate for buyers in this situation but the warranty is offered by the manufacturer, not by us," Mr Keogh said."We are not under any obligation to provide a warranty."But what we have decided to do, is we are actually going to honour the warranty for a year, whereby if it breaks down in the next 12 months, as long as they get it back to our Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane warehouse, we are going to provide a full refund."About 2800 trader creditors are understood to be owed $12 million by the kitchen and laundry appliance group. Yesterday, Deloitte announced the first meeting of creditors would be held next Thursday in Brisbane. The meeting would provide an update on the company and appoint a creditors' committee. Kleenmaid CEO Bradley Young did not respond to requests through Deloitte for comment.
