Eighty-five days to pay. Then administration.

The week on the failure register: Cheap as Chips Discount Stores entered voluntary administration after its last two public Payment Times reports showed a sharp lengthening in payments to small suppliers. Twelve mining appointments arrived, but every one belonged to one of two same-week clusters. All told, 300 companies entered external administration or had controllers appointed, 21% above the preceding four-week average.

On 28 May, Glenn Livingstone of WLP Restructuring was appointed administrator to Cheap as Chips Discount Stores Pty Ltd.

The company's public Payment Times reports provide a rare view of the supplier experience before the appointment. For the six months to December 2024, its average time to pay small suppliers was 61.5 days, the median was 52 days and 41.2% of invoices were paid after 60 days. In the next reported half-year, ending June 2025, the average had lengthened to 84.8 days, the median to 80 days, and 67.6% of invoices were paid after 60 days. Only 10.3% were paid within 30 days.

The timing matters. The latest period ended almost eleven months before the administration, so this was not a real-time alarm and it does not prove what caused the appointment. It was an observable deterioration in how the company paid small suppliers, available well before the insolvency row appeared.

The legal entity also matters. A public Modern Slavery Statement identified Cheap as Chips Discount Stores and Palcove as the reporting entities in the Cheap as Chips group. The entity in this week's appointment file is Cheap as Chips Discount Stores Pty Ltd, ACN 616 449 122. Entity-level matching keeps a familiar brand from flattening several companies into one credit record.

This is the credit-facing version of the product's job. Appointment monitoring tells a reader when formal insolvency arrives. The wider register spine can show whether another public signal existed earlier, while keeping the distinction between correlation and cause.

Mining recorded 12 first-time appointments, against a preceding four-week average of two. It looks like a sector-wide shock until the rows are resolved.

Four Nathan River Resources entities entered voluntary administration on 26 May with Giovanni Carrello of BRI Ferrier Western Australia: Nathan River Resources, NR Road Haulage, NRR Equipment and NRR Mining. The parent carried the register threshold flag for the ATO's $100 million-plus corporate transparency population.

The following day, Clifford Rocke was appointed administrator to eight WA mining entities: Ausinox, Australian Lithium Alliance, Beebyn Pastoral Company, EV Metals Australia, EVM Lithium Chemicals, EVM Lithium, EVM Nickel Chemicals and EVM Resources. Several current names carry EVM directly; former-name records connect Ausinox, Australian Lithium Alliance, Beebyn and EV Metals Australia to EV Metals or EVM names. EV Metals Group publicly describes its business as an integrated battery-chemicals and critical-minerals platform.

Together, the four Nathan River rows and eight EVM-linked rows account for all 12 mining appointments that week. The industry spike is real as a count and concentrated as an event. That is why a committee table needs the entities beneath it before anyone calls a weekly move a broad sector trend.

Three companies arrived under bare ACNs. Their former names restore the ledger identities:

Each rename is recorded as a registry fact. It is not evidence of concealment, wrongdoing or the reason for the appointment.

The 300 appointments were shared across 159 appointees: 155 practitioners and four financiers enforcing directly. The trailing-quarter benchmark was Geoffrey Granger with 101 first-time appointments in 90 days, 2.9% of the national count. Counts say nothing about outcomes or quality. Busy is busy.

300 first-time appointments (preceding four-week average: 247; same week last year: 325). Financial-year tracker: 12,819 vs 13,416 at the same point last year (-4%).

Appointment types: creditors' voluntary liquidation 150; court liquidation 45; restructuring 41; voluntary administration 38; receiver and manager 10; other controller appointments 9; receiver 7.

By state: NSW 111; Victoria 80; Queensland 53; Western Australia 31; South Australia 15; ACT 5; Northern Territory 5.

This retrospective archive edition is web-only and does not include a historical Ledger File. The first public Ledger File sample ships free with the launch issue for the week to 21 June. Founding memberships open shortly.

The archive demonstrates two practical workflows. A credit reader can join an appointment to earlier payment behaviour, and a committee reader can decompose a 12-company industry spike into two concentrated files. The article shows the finding; the Member File makes the exposure check usable against a reader's own book.

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Sources: ASIC insolvency statistics Series 1 and 2, release published 13 July 2026, including first-time appointments for the week to 31 May; the Australian Government Payment Times Reports Register download dated 10 June 2026; applicable CC-licensed ASIC company-register extracts; ABR records; the Australian Modern Slavery Statements Register; EV Metals Group public material; HPL Advisory's Temple Bruer matter page. ASIC and other government material is attributed to the relevant agencies under the stated licences. Entering external administration, liquidation or receivership is a fact of the public record and implies no wrongdoing by any company or person named. General information only, not financial advice.