{"id":73742,"date":"2026-08-17T07:26:33","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T07:26:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/73742\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T07:26:33","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T07:26:33","slug":"mundella-collapse-leaves-millions-owed-as-director-faces-investigations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/73742\/","title":{"rendered":"Mundella collapse leaves millions owed as director faces investigations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Creditors say they may not see a cent of the millions owed to them by collapsed West Australian dairy processor Mundella Foods and two other associated companies.<\/p>\n

Mundella, Margaret River Dairy Company and The Cheeky Cow were put into liquidation this month.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Director Hayden Russell is facing investigations by liquidators at Mackay Goodwin following administrators’ preliminary suggestions of insolvent trading and hundreds of potentially “unreasonable transactions”.<\/p>\n

Dairy farmer and Mundella Foods milk supplier Phil Hall told the ABC he was owed “enough money to buy a house” and expected to get nothing back from the liquidation.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Phil Hall says he is still owed hundreds of thousands of dollars by Mundella Foods. (Supplied: Facebook\/Halls Family Dairy)<\/p>\n

“I don’t know what happened to Mundella, but I know this year we basically never got paid,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Myself and another dairy farmer, we both did the same thing, believing in this company.<\/p>\n

“We wanted this to work because it was the only way forward for the future.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A trio of well-known dairy companies have collapsed after being put into voluntary administration a year ago. (ABC South West WA: Jon Daly)<\/p>\n

The unpaid debt contributed to his family’s recent decision to sell their farms at Wokalup in WA’s South West and leave the dairy industry after six generations.<\/p>\n

“I remember being three and running around this farm,” Mr Hall said, choking back tears.<\/p>\n

Do you know more about this story? Get in touch via email Daly.Jonathon@abc.net.au<\/a><\/p>\n

Failed rescue plan<\/p>\n

Mundella, Margaret River Dairy Company and The Cheeky Cow were put into liquidation on August 6, following the termination of a Deed of Company Arrangement (DOCA) put forward by Mr Russell in August last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr Hall is among the unsecured creditors still owed millions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They were told they could see a potential return of 68 cents to the dollar under a rescue plan to sell the real estate portfolio of the companies under lease-back arrangements.<\/p>\n

But administrators told the ABC the DOCA had been terminated as a result of Mr Russell’s non-compliance with the terms of the deal.<\/p>\n

It is not known what breach triggered the termination of the rescue plan.<\/p>\n

\"Hayden<\/p>\n

Hayden Russell is facing scrutiny following the liquidation of the business and other associated companies. (Supplied: Kira Price)<\/p>\n

A financial statement seen by the ABC shows more than $620,000 was paid from the administration accounts during the DOCA period for expenses, including administrator fees, trading costs and supplier payments.<\/p>\n

Just under $13,000 remained when the deed was terminated.<\/p>\n

There appears to have been no significant distribution of money to unsecured creditors.<\/p>\n

The companies’ property and remaining assets have been transferred to the mortgagee, Bowral Capital Pty Ltd.<\/p>\n

Mr Hall said he held no ill-will towards Mr Russell, because he had initially paid dairy farmers 90 cents a litre for milk, compared to 76 cents offered by other processors.<\/p>\n

“I’m not angry with Hayden because he was trying to do the right thing for the dairy industry,” he said.<\/p>\n

“None of the other milk companies were offering anything near the price he was offering, and nor are they trying to do anything for the farmers left in the industry.”<\/p>\n

Former Mundella Foods employee Mairee Wall is less forgiving.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Mairee Wall says the collapse of Mundella Foods “broke” her and other employees, who were once proud of the brand. (ABC South West WA: Jon Daly)<\/p>\n

She said she was still owed about $10,000 of unpaid annual leave and superannuation.<\/p>\n

Ms Wall worked as a pasteuriser at Mundella Foods’ Mundijong manufacturing facility near Perth from 2012, well before the company was purchased by The Cheeky Cow, a company majority-owned by Hayden Russell.<\/p>\n

“That’s when things very quickly unravelled,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Things went drastically wrong. There was no protocol. There was just no structure.”<\/p>\n

Ms Wall said she was once proud of making the Mundella brand of yoghurt, which had previously won national awards.<\/p>\n

“We put everything into it, and it really broke a lot of people, me being one of them, when things just fell apart and just so quickly,” she said.\"A<\/p>\n

Thoroughbred industry reports named Hayden Russell as the buyer of the stallion God Has Spoken in November last year. (Supplied: OzRace)<\/p>\n

Thoroughbred purchases<\/p>\n

Industry reports and bloodstock sale records indicate Mr Russell expanded his involvement in WA’s thoroughbred industry during the past year.<\/p>\n

Thoroughbred Breeders WA reported in November last year that “Margaret River Dairy Company owner Hayden Russell” had purchased a stallion named God Has Spoken, and the ABC has confirmed that purchase agreement.<\/p>\n

\"Rows<\/p>\n

The dairy companies’ assets and properties have been transferred to the mortgagee, Bowral Capital Pty Ltd. (ABC South West WA: Jon Daly)<\/p>\n

Sale results on online horse auction site Magic Millions list a buyer identified as “Hayden Russell, WA” as purchasing five horses earlier this year.<\/p>\n

There is no evidence in the administrators’ reports linking Mr Russell’s thoroughbred purchases, which had total costs of under $10,000, to the dairy companies’ funds or to the transactions flagged for further investigation.<\/p>\n

The ABC has contacted Mr Russell for comment.<\/p>\n

Liquidators to investigate<\/p>\n

In a report lodged with the corporate watchdog, administrators stated that the downfall of the companies was the combined result of “poor financial control\/lack of records”, “poor strategic management” and trading losses.<\/p>\n

The liquidation process will involve further investigations of Mr Russell’s duties as director.<\/p>\n

Administrators flagged about 235 transactions worth more than $100,000 that may be considered “unreasonable director-related transactions” across the three companies.<\/p>\n

The administrators also noted “sufficient evidence to suggest” Mundella had traded while insolvent from July 2024 and Margaret River Dairy Company from December 2023.<\/p>\n

They estimated about $3.7 million in debt was incurred during that time, and said Mr Russell “may be personally liable for insolvent trading”.<\/p>\n

Administrators said preliminary findings had identified potential offences they intended to lodge with the corporate watchdog.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Creditors say they may not see a cent of the millions owed to them by collapsed West Australian…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73743,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22,21,24182,106055,106052,106053,106054,106051,106050,106049,3735,101884],"class_list":["post-73742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-bunbury","tag-cheeky-cow","tag-hayden-russell","tag-liquidators","tag-margaret-river-dairy-company","tag-mundella","tag-mundella-yoghurt","tag-south-west-wa","tag-wa","tag-yoghurt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73742\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}