EXCLUSIVE:E3 Style Placed Into Administration, Banks, Lawyers + Partners All Owed Money
E3 Style, a former major supplier of house brand products to mass retailers including JB Hi Fi and Harvey Norman has been placed into administration.
Run by Vannessa Garrard the Company was struggling financially after Garrard moved to sue Crest Distribution a case that is believed to have already cost the Company over $700,00 in legal costs.
E3 was also being sued by for over $250,000 by a business linked with Powermove CEO Crawford Giles.
The registered liquidator is Domenico Alessandro Calabretta. ChannelNews understands that it was a major bank that moved to place the business into liquidation.
During the past 12 months several retailers have moved to distance themselves from E3 Style who at one stage held the licensing rights to several key brands including Warner products.
Garrard who liked to brag about her success was at one stage accused of faking awards that she displayed in her office.
According to sources the awards were made up by a graphic artist.
Garrard the former PA and now Managing Director of E3 Style became obsessed in taking on Crest in the Supreme Court.
She was of the belief that former employee Michael Tomkins took confidential information relating to deals that E3 were doing with Officeworks when he quit to join Crest.
It’s also been alleged that information relation to two secret Officeworks initiatives, called Pallet Project and Camera Project were compromised.
Garrard also claims that Crest Director Dirk Olberitz supplied confidential information relating to the Company to ChannelNews, breaching a confidential agreement between the two Companies.
Garrard the former PA to Olberitz, who went on to work in Crest’s call centre and then their sales operation before quitting to set to E3 Style with two other partners, one who has since quit the Company, also claims that confidential information relating to the operations of the Company and an alleged sale of 50% of the business was leaked to ChannelNews.
Back in 2015, I got information from multiple sources that the Company was struggling financially and the E3 was in the market for either a capital raising or a business partner, we were also told that shares in the Company were up for sale.
Another rumour at the time was that the Commonwealth Bank had refused to fund the Company’s operations any further.
We were also told that E3 was talking to a number of distributors in Australia about a possible merger.
Garrard at one stage told sources that Harvey Norman was buying into her business.
Garrard denied that her business was in financial trouble and at one stage threatened to sue ChannelNews if we claimed that her business was in financial trouble.
One of the allegations we put to Garrard, which is now outlined in court documents was that Harvey Norman who at the time were expanding their house brand product ranges in Australia had been approached to be a potential partner via a shelf Company run by a Harvey Norman franchisee in Queensland.
In December we exclusively revealed that leading consumer electronics distributor Powermove was suing E3 Style claiming they are owed $285,000 which was as deposit on a shipment of goods destine for a major retailer.
The Powermove case which relates to the way E3 Style, who see themselves as a sourcing Company funds shipments is also set to be heard in the Brisbane Supreme Court next year.
Last year E3 Style who ChannelNews believes has been struggling to fund shipments without major deposits similar to the one that Powermove funded sold 50% of her business to a major consumer electronics distributor who E3 CEO Vannessa Garrard now claims are trying to mount a “hostile takeover.
She also accused ChannelNews at the time of the call of getting confidential information about E3 Style from The Crest Company, an allegation that at the time we denied and still deny.