All Are Welcome – renowned for its sourdough and pastries – is closing its doors after going into liquidation, leaving questions about unpaid entitlements for dozens of staff.
Inner-north Melbourne bakery All Are Welcome is closing all three of its shops, but its founder denies the closure is linked to media reports that the business owes staff more than $360,000 in entitlements.
A long post on its Instagram page included this statement: “We lost the heart of our bakery and we can not continue. It’s unfortunate, it’s sad, it’s ugly, it’s frustrating. It’s life.”
All Are Welcome, which employs 61 staff, opened in 2017 on High Street, Northcote, before expanding to locations in Thornbury and East Ivanhoe with an unusual roster of sweet and savoury pastries, sourdough bread and hearty sandwiches.
Speaking to this masthead, owner Boris Portnoy explained that it was not able to renew its Northcote bakery’s lease following All Are Welcome Pty Ltd going into voluntary administration in February and Portnoy buying back the business under a new entity.
“We’ve really done a lot of number crunching, you know, working with different scenarios. Can we [run] just the Thornbury and Ivanhoe shops? It was a lot of more questions rather than answers,” he says.
The ABC reported on June 9 that staff were owed $243,000 in superannuation and $125,000 in leave entitlements, and that the business entered voluntary administration in February after accruing more than $1 million in debts.
Records show the Australian Securities and Investments Commission was notified in late May of a decision to voluntarily liquidate All Are Welcome Pty Ltd.
“The decision was really made up for us,” Portnoy said of the closure.
“It had nothing to do with the public opinion, public court or whatever. It didn’t have to do anything with ABC article. It had nothing to do with any of those things.”
Asked today if staff would be paid the outstanding entitlements, Portnoy said: “The best person to tell you that is the administrators.”
Dozens of comments on the Instagram post expressed disappointment at the treatment of staff and questioned whether they would be paid their superannuation.
Others simply mourned the loss of a loved community space for good coffee, bread and pastries.
The bakeries’ last days of trade are today and tomorrow.
Administrators Hamilton Murphy were contacted for comment.
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Emma Breheny – Emma is Good Food’s Melbourne eating out and restaurant editor and editor of The Age Good Food Guide.
