Mountain Buggy UK's assets frozen by Dutch court order

Tritec Manufacturing’s UK subsidiary Mountain Buggy UK has had all its European assets frozen by a Dutch bank after Denmark-based company DK Intertrade alleged the pushchair manufacturer had breached a contract.

The Danish distribution company was in court in New Zealand last week in a bid to get compensation as it believes Mountain Buggy breached a distribution contract. The company had already asked the Dutch court to freeze the assets of the UK subsidiary.

Although Tritec Manufacturing and New Zealand subsidiary Mountain Buggy were put into receivership in January the UK subsidiary is still operating.

DK Intertrade’s spokesman Lachlan Willams says the company had asked for the Dutch seizure order to prevent the company’s assets being lost before the New Zealand court case is resolved.

“Assets frozen are in the order of a few hundred thousand euros, and include inventory, debts, office equipment and cash,” he says.

“As such, we are in a superior position to a normal unsecured creditor,” he adds.

DK Intertrade alleges it had a contract to be the sole distributor of Mountain Buggy products in Denmark but that Mountain Buggy had tried to cut it out by marketing and selling straight to its customers.

The company claims losses of around 978,000 euros ($NZ2.49 million).

Mountain Buggy receiver John Fisk, of PriceWaterhouseCoopers, confirmed that the assets of the UK company had been frozen and that the receivers were dealing with the claim.

He refused to comment further on what this meant for the UK subsidiary.

PriceWaterhouseCoopers is in the process of selling Tritec Manufacturing and its subsidiaries as a going concern – it is hoped that the sale might be completed by the end of April.