Wellness & Beauty Solutions enters voluntary administration

Pic: Stevica Mrdja / EyeEm / EyeEm via Getty Images

Beauty clinic operator Wellness & Beauty Solutions (ASX:WNB) has fallen into voluntary administration.

The move comes nearly 2 months since it failed to lodge its quarterly report and has been suspended ever since.

Shareholders were informed the administrator, Laurence Fitzgerald of William Buck, had formally assumed control of the group’s assets and said he would try to maximise the outcome for all stakeholders.

This essentially means the administrators will try to avoid a liquidation of the company – potentially by finding a buyer for the company’s assets.

The collapse comes just 2 days after the expiration of the JobKeeper wage subsidy which the company told shareholders in last year’s June quarterly it received.

It last updated shareholders on February 1 when it was first suspended saying it was in discussion for a funding agreement and would announce more details when these came to light.

5 year ride for shareholders

Wellness & Beauty first listed on the ASX in early 2016 then known as Total Face Group and run by Melbourne businessman Paul Fielding.

In late 2018, it acquired Giving Brands Company owned by Christine Parkes who then took over as group CEO.

It had some successes in early 2019 in signing some retail distribution deals and signing on major influencers to promote its skincare products but its share price still stagnated.

COVID-19 was a big blow forcing its clinics to shut.

One telling sign of the company’s troubles was its foray into hand sanitisers which caused a brief share price spike.

Its most recent quarterly (for the September quarter of 2020) revealed a net outflow of $926,000 from operating activities. Although it estimated it had over four quarters of cash flow left a substantial proportion of this was in the form of a debt facility.

So now that it is in voluntary administration this the end of the company?

The recent case study of Virgin Australia shows the answer isn’t always a yes – companies can have a life after administration.

But it is typically under new management, with some operation changes and potentially not as an ASX listed company.