ES Group Collapses

Australian staging and event firm ES Group has gone under with debts of $6 million.

Founded in 1998, it provided staging for festivals including Good Vibrations, Future Music and Parklife as well as the ARIA music awards and the Victorian Grand Prix.

Last year’s revenues totaled between $11 million and $12 million. According to Giles Woodgate of administrator Woodgate & Co, “The cause appears to be fundamentally bad management, poor cost control, excessive wages and salaries.”

Creditors included Crew on Call, Melrose Cranes, Mojo Barriers, the Australian Tax Office and Opera Australia. Fifteen retrenched staffers are owed 195,000 in entitlements.