XL Express leaves hundreds of employees out of pocket as it faces almost $42m in debt, administrator FTI Consulting says
XL Express appointed FTI Consulting's Kelly-Anne Trenfield, Ross Blakely and Joanne Dunn as its administrators in June and went into liquidation at the beginning of this month after 35 years in business.
About 200 employees were sacked prior to FTI's appointment and left without large sums of pay.
The company was locked out of its Western Sydney premises on June 23 for failing to pay rent while workers were let go the next day, according to the administrator.
It suffered losses throughout the 2023 and 2024 financial years and had solid tax debts from at least March 2023.
FTI predicts XL could have been insolvent as far back as January 2023.
Alongside hefty debts to its employees and the ATO, the company also owes almost $19m to major lenders, including NAB, ScotPac and Judo Bank.
Other unsecured creditors are owed an additional $12.4m, according to the report.
An unknown amount is owed to out-of-pocket former employees for injury compensation alongside the $5.3m of debt owed to former employees.
This includes about $925,000 of superannuation, at least $970,000 of annual leave and more than $1.6m of redundancy pay.
XL's attempted to sooth some of the crippling debt by engaging with Manheim Auctions to sell its fleet of vehicles just before appointing FTI as its administrator.
Prior to its collapse, the Queensland-headquartered company offered transport services for an array of consumer and business customers across the country.
On its website, XL Express said it delivered to retail stores, all major distribution centres and residential locations across the nation.
It also boasted of a 'national network', which includes its parcel sortation systems and technology that allowed package tracking.
'We're a business that's built on the challenger model,' the company's website states.
'We're here to disrupt the status quo and think harder and act smarter for our clients and their businesses.'
The company's collapse follows it establishing a partnership with the Brisbane Lions between 2020 and 2022.
XL Express's logo featured on the front of the AFL team's jersey, while the Lions logo was seen on the company's trucks.
The Brisbane-headquartered company operated depots around the country including Sydney, Melbourne, Cairns, Darwin, Perth and Adelaide.
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