A Gold Coast bulk fuel supply company and Supercars team sponsor has run out of gas leaving 100 jobs in limbo.
Administrators and receivers have been appointed to Yatala-based Mega Ltd and 10 associated companies, including Mega NQ Pty Ltd, which traded as Capentaria Fuels and Richmond Roadhouse, and Graycog Pty Ltd, which traded as Diesel Express.
Mega Ltd specialised in the supply and storage of bulk diesel fuel for the heavy transport, civil construction, marine and agricultural industries.
It also had ambitions in the retail sector, planning to bring more competition by acquiring service stations and using its low overheads to feed into lower prices at the bowser.
The company immediately raised its profile by co-sponsoring the Walkinshaw Andretti United V8 Supercars team and becoming its primary backer.
WAU was previously the Holden Racing Team until welcoming Andretti Autosport and United Autosports as partners last year.
Its drivers include Scott Pye and James Courtney, who is set to leave WAU at the end of the 2019 season.
A spokesman for WAU this morning declined to comment on what the administration of Mega Ltd means for the team.
After its launch last year, Mega snapped up businesses including Diesel Express, an onsite refuelling business that services the civil and engineering sectors, Fuel Corp, another onsite refuelling business, Carpentaria Fuels, a bulk fuel supplier with a retail operation, and a service station in Rocklea.
The company acquired a fleet of B-double trucks and its footprint extended from the Gold and Sunshine Coasts, Ipswich, Hervey Bay, Roma right through to North Queensland, and NSW.
It had plans to roll out a number of the truck stops down the east coast in places such as Sarina, Bowen and the Sunshine Coast.
General manager Garth Anderson declined to comment when contacted this morning and referred queries to managing director Corey Brown who failed to respond.
Calls to the company’s Yatala HQ went unanswered.
Company records show Mr Brown, who lives at Paradise Point, was appointed a director of Mega Ltd, along with Jon Blanchard, last month and that Rick Roberts was appointed in June.
They replaced Geoffrey Sam, Terry Knight and John Farrington, who ceased their directorships between May and August.
Simon Cathro and Christopher Cook of Worrells have been appointed administrators for the Mega companies, while receivers Barry Kogan, of McGrathNicol and Darryl Kirk of Cor Cordis have been separately appointed by various financiers.
A Worrells spokeswoman said its investigations were continuing into the Mega companies and it is unable to comment.
Extracted from Gold Coast Bulletin