Mrs Christmas collapses leaving 5000 savers in limbo

The savings of about 5000 customers of hamper company Mrs Christmas are in limbo after the business went into liquidation this morning.

In a shock move, Mrs Christmas withdrew its opposition to an application for liquidation filed by courier company Post Haste.

This cleared the way for Associate Judge David Robinson to place the company in the hands of liquidators Damien Grant and Steven Khov of Waterstone Insolvency.

“The evidence establishes that the defendant is indeed insolvent,” he said this morning.

Mrs Christmas is understood to owe more than $5 million to a raft of creditors.

There are 15 companies that have registered security interests against the company, including Westpac and suppliers DB Breweries, Independent Liquor and Nestle.

The news that Mrs Christmas was facing liquidation last month provoked aggressive ad campaigns from the other two hamper companies, Chrisco and Hampsta.

Chrisco has offered "to rescue Christmas for thousands of families potentially stranded if Mrs Christmas collapses."

This would, presumably, involve Mrs Christmas customers switching to Chrisco and being credited for the amount they had already saved.

A Chrisco spokesperson was not immediately available for comment.

Mrs Christmas’s only director is Phillip Walls; he also owns 31% of the business.

The rest is owned by 11 other shareholders, including chef and former frontwoman for the company’s ads, Annabelle White.

She has a nearly 4% stake.