Rydges Wholesale Foods is in liquidation under a name with no Rydges in it.

On 19 October, ASIC published a liquidation notice for two Brisbane food companies. It names them A.C.N 142 635 881 Pty Ltd and A.C.N 647 805 810 Pty Ltd.

Until 6 October they were Rydges Wholesale Foods Pty Ltd, ACN 142 635 881, and Stockman's Australia Pty Ltd, ACN 647 805 810.

The notice prints no trading name. Not Rydges Wholesale Foods or Spring Mountain Foods. Not Caldwell Eggs or Stockman's Australia. Not Vintage Beef, Vintage Lamb, Vintage Pork or Vintage Seafood. Just two company numbers.

Your invoices carry the name you dealt with. The notice carries a number. What connects them is the ABN on the invoice: 80 142 635 881 for Rydges Wholesale Foods, 94 647 805 810 for Stockman's Australia. Each ABN contains its company's ACN.

That matters to anyone who sold meat, eggs, packaging, refrigeration or freight to either company, and to the supermarkets and caterers that bought from them.

No. Rydges Hotels Ltd, ACN 050 035 268, is a different company. It is not named in either notice, and the ASIC company register lists it as registered, not under external administration.

The companies in liquidation are the food businesses. On its own website, Rydges Wholesale Foods describes supplying smallgoods, antipasto and fresh and frozen poultry across Brisbane, Queensland and northern New South Wales from a Tingalpa headquarters. It lists its customers as supermarket chains including Foodworks, IGA, Spar and Night Owl, government bodies and contract caterers.

Liquidation, since 16 October.

Both companies entered voluntary administration on 10 September. Robert William Hutson and Stacey Clisby of KordaMentha were appointed administrators of both, and every notice since has covered the two companies together.

On 16 October, the day set for the second creditors' meetings, both companies went into creditors' voluntary liquidation. Stacey Clisby and Robert Hutson are the liquidators. ASIC published the liquidation notice on 19 October.

The names had changed before that. The 9 October notice that called those meetings already used the ACN-only names, with "Formerly Rydges Wholesale Foods Pty Ltd" and "Formerly Stockman's Australia Pty Ltd" beside them. The liquidation notice drops even that. Neither notice says why the names changed.

A company's own name and its business names are registered separately, and the Australian Business Register keeps the history of both. These are the dates it records.

ACN 142 635 881 (ABN 80 142 635 881)

ACN 647 805 810 (ABN 94 647 805 810)

As at 20 October, all ten of those current business names were still registered to the two companies in liquidation. A registered business name tells you who holds the name, not who trades under it.

Rydges' own history page says: "In 2022 we acquired Caldwell Eggs." ACN 647 805 810 has held the Caldwell Eggs business name since June 2021, and was itself called Caldwell Eggs Pty Ltd until January 2023, when it became Stockman's Australia Pty Ltd. The notices are silent on how the two companies are owned.

Even the number-names are not spelled one way. The 9 October notice prints "ACN 142 635 881 Pty Ltd". The liquidation notice prints "A.C.N 142 635 881 Pty Ltd". The ASIC company register holds "A.C.N. 142 635 881 PTY LTD". A text search for one can miss the others. The nine digits are the same in all three.

The same names also sit on the register against entities that are not named in either notice:

The register records when each held a name, not why. What it settles is that the name on an invoice is not enough. A Caldwell Eggs invoice from 2020 and one from 2024 may come from different companies.

The ABN tells you which. If it is 80 142 635 881 or 94 647 805 810, the company is in liquidation.

In Queensland Government contract disclosures, 43 separate entries from 17 agencies name a Rydges hotel or resort: workshop venue hire at the Rydges Esplanade Resort in Cairns, conference fees at Rydges Southbank Townsville, a Griffith University student ball at Rydges South Bank Brisbane. Four name the food wholesaler.

Those four describe a different business.

Queensland Corrective Services disclosed a contract with Rydges Wholesale Foods for the "Provision of Food Products to QCS", valued at A$1,775,846 excluding GST. It began on 30 August 2014 and finished on 30 March 2021. Rydges Wholesale Foods was also among the suppliers named on the department's food-supply panels in 2014 and 2019.

Those contracts ended years ago, and they describe what the state was buying between 2014 and 2021, not who the companies were supplying in 2026. They do show what the name meant in Queensland purchasing. For most agencies, Rydges was a hotel. For one department, it was food.

Stacey Clisby and Robert Hutson of KordaMentha are the liquidators of both companies. ASIC's guide for creditors says a liquidator must send creditors a report within three months after their appointment, covering the company's estimated assets and liabilities, what happened to its business and the likelihood of a dividend. For appointments on 16 October, that report is due by 16 January 2027.

Until then, the open questions are the ones the notices leave unanswered:

The liquidation is of the two companies. It is not, on its own, a finding that the Rydges Wholesale Foods, Caldwell Eggs or Stockman's Australia names have stopped trading.

The notice gives you two numbers. Your invoices give you a name. The ABN is what connects them.

We publish public-record information, not advice. The liquidators are the authoritative source on both liquidations. Rydges Hotels Ltd is named here only to distinguish it from the companies in liquidation.