GrabOne NZ appoints liquidators

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pureinception

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#323010 16-Oct-2025 10:51

From an email today:

Dear customer

On 16 October 2025 Daniel Stoneman and Neale Jackson of Calibre Partners were appointed liquidators of Global Marketplace New Zealand Limited (In Liquidation), the company that operates the GrabOne business in New Zealand (‘the Company”).

Due to funding constraints, the business has ceased trading and the liquidators are immediately commencing a sales process for the Company's business and assets. As a result, the Company will not be promoting any existing or future Deals whilst in liquidation.

For consumers who hold unredeemed vouchers, the Company is unable to provide refunds. Consumers will need to take steps themselves - including contacting individual merchants - to assess how unredeemed vouchers will be treated.

For the avoidance of doubt, the liquidators do not adopt any agreement you had with the Company personally or otherwise, and the agreement remains between you and the Company.

For further information, please contact grabone@calibrepartners.co.nz.

For and on behalf of Global Marketplace New Zealand Limited (In Liquidation)

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#3425319 16-Oct-2025 11:25

I assumed this kind of thing already happened years ago. More surprised to learn GrabOne was still operating.

turtleattacks

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#3425334 16-Oct-2025 11:44

I thought they were owned by NZME? Obviously not anymore.

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pureinception

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#3425366 16-Oct-2025 13:10

turtleattacks:

I thought they were owned by NZME? Obviously not anymore.

Looks like they were sold off in 2021

AUCKLAND, 24 August 2021: Today NZME Limited (NZX: NZM, ASX: NZM) (“NZME”) announced it had reached an agreement to sell the GrabOne business and assets to Global Marketplace New Zealand Limited (“GMP”) for NZD$17.5 million (payable in cash on completion).

MikeB4

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#3425369 16-Oct-2025 13:17

I too thought it expired years back.

Here is a crazy notion, lets give peace a chance.

invisibleman18

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#3425400 16-Oct-2025 14:14

I’ve used it over the years for things like wheel alignements, WOF/service and house washes. My WOF/service is actually due in a couple of weeks and I was just thinking about seeing if there was a voucher for the place I’ve been to the last couple of years using Grabone (it’s a 21 year old Corolla, don’t really want to spend the money Toyota charge so I’ve been going wherever is cheapest on Grabone). Lucky I’ve been a bit slack about organising it this time.

quickymart

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#3425465 16-Oct-2025 15:39

MikeB4:

I too thought it expired years back.

You're not alone thinking like that (I thought they had too): https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/576088/grabone-goes-into-liquidation-questions-linger-for-voucher-holders

Marketing expert Bodo Lang, of Massey University, said GrabOne's problem was that it failed to provide value to its target market.

"In other words, its vouchers, which were once upon a time exciting, had lost their appeal.

"A closely related second reason for GrabOne's liquidation is that it suffered from declining top of mind brand awareness. While GrabOne was on everybody's mind and in every dinner conversation some years ago, a lack of brand investment meant that the brand was slowly buried amongst advertising by other brands."

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#3425466 16-Oct-2025 15:42

Just as an FYI - if you've paid for a voucher by credit card, whilst you won't be able to get a refund or use the voucher, you can apply for a Chargeback via your card issuing bank.

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pureinception

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#3425531 16-Oct-2025 17:16

I would've thought older unredeemed vouchers could still be redeemed if GrabOne paid the merchant when a voucher was purchased. There's no reason they would need to be redeemed before they pay out is there?

Jase2985

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#3425537 16-Oct-2025 18:07

pureinception:

I would've thought older unredeemed vouchers could still be redeemed if GrabOne paid the merchant when a voucher was purchased. There's no reason they would need to be redeemed before they pay out is there?

Probably cant claim the money from grabone till the voucher is redeemed

Senecio

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#3425538 16-Oct-2025 18:48

There's no chance that GrabOne have paid the merchants before the voucher was redeemed. That would be a cash flow disaster.

LostBoyNZ

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#3425590 16-Oct-2025 20:47

Yeah unfortunately it seems like GrabOne haven't paid the companies. Alice in Putterland here in Christchurch for example posted this on their Facebook today:

"We have not been paid from GrabOne since before the school holidays, and we had many people enjoy their vouchers over the holiday period. As you can imagine, as a small family business this liquidation is a direct hit to our pockets - literally thousands of dollars down the drain - and the last thing we needed in this tough economic climate.

We appreciate there will be many more families that would’ve been anticipating using their GrabOne vouchers in the weeks to come. As a gesture of goodwill, we will honour your vouchers.

Unfortunately, it looks like the GrabOne App is no longer able to be logged into. This means we will only be able to accept printed out versions of the vouchers (or confirmation emails)."

I thought that was really nice of them to still honor the vouchers.

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quickymart

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#3425592 16-Oct-2025 20:52

Just checked their website and it's in "Maintenance Mode", with the same text as the e-mail in the initial post.

Scott3

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#3425600 16-Oct-2025 21:47

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/360856441/grabone-operator-goes-liquidation

In general, it seems business with low marginal costs (i.e. swimming pool & snow planet) are happy to honor vouchers (and wear the likely zero revenue) to keep people happy and protect their brand image. But business with high marginal costs (Stuff talked to a butcher), area already massively in a financial hole from this and can't afford to go deeper.

I respect both positions.

Strongly advise anybody with a voucher that won't be honored to work through the disputes process (if they paid via credit card / zip / afterpay), ASAP.

pureinception:

I would've thought older unredeemed vouchers could still be redeemed if GrabOne paid the merchant when a voucher was purchased. There's no reason they would need to be redeemed before they pay out is there?

Usually the dominant party in the agreement tries the best to swing the credit terms in their favor for cash flow.

Also, not allowing retailers to claim vouchers until they are consumed, it means grabone gets the full value of any vouchers that expire unused. I would expect that to make up a decent chunk of their profit.

pureinception

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#3425604 16-Oct-2025 22:09

LostBoyNZ:

Yeah unfortunately it seems like GrabOne haven't paid the companies. Alice in Putterland here in Christchurch for example posted this on their Facebook today:

"We have not been paid from GrabOne since before the school holidays, and we had many people enjoy their vouchers over the holiday period. As you can imagine, as a small family business this liquidation is a direct hit to our pockets - literally thousands of dollars down the drain - and the last thing we needed in this tough economic climate.

We appreciate there will be many more families that would’ve been anticipating using their GrabOne vouchers in the weeks to come. As a gesture of goodwill, we will honour your vouchers. Unfortunately, it looks like the GrabOne App is no longer able to be logged into. This means we will only be able to accept printed out versions of the vouchers (or confirmation emails)." I thought that was really nice of them to still honor the vouchers.

Similar with these hot pools who posted this

GrabOne has Closed! (But we have your back)

We have just been notified along with all other GrabOne customers that Grabone.co.nz has gone into liquidation and all the businesses who had deals with GrabOne will not be receiving any income from vouchers sold on the GrabOne website effectively the vouchers people have paid for are now worthless... and businesses like ours are out of pocket...

But we understand times are hard for families at the moment and we don't want to see our customers unable to use their vouchers that they paid for, so we will continue to accept valid grabone vouchers up to their expiry date

For us to accept a voucher we will need to see the actual voucher with its Voucher Code on it. You will no longer be able to login to your grabone account. So you will need to bring in a printed copy of your voucher or show us the email you received from GrabOne when you made your purchase so we can process it on our end when you arrive.

Scott3

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#3425607 16-Oct-2025 22:54

Its worth taking a little bit of time to consider the business model of Grab one (and other Living Social Knock off's).

They absolutely boomed in the early days, at face value, almost too good to be true for both parties (with the website clipping the ticket in the middle).

Over time both parties came to know the limitations:

For businesses:

Generally a fairly expensive marketing tool
The value focused voucher buyers rarely transitioned to regular full price paying customers, and rarely purchased high margin add ons.
Some business poorly handled voucher sales, selling far too many, leading to full bookings with discounted customers displacing full price paying regulars, staff burn out etc.
Voucher customers can not treat the activity seriously as they got it at a deep discount. Turn up late etc.
Voucher customers can be really picky, and review harshly - reports of business getting their only 1 star reviews from voucher holders.
Demographic of voucher customers (local cheep skates), can be incomparable with regular customers (wealthy international tourists)

Vouchers can work well for businesses where they are used to fill capacitary that would be vacant anyway (or they have abundant capacity, and are using it as a price discrimination tool). i.e. 5pm restaurant bookings, out of season tourist style activities etc.

For Customers:

Sometimes got differential treatment. i.e. at restaurants where you get seated in the back corner (along with other voucher customers), and get given a special (lesser) menu.
Many business took to restricting their number of voucher bookings per day, so it could be hard to get a booking in a reasonable time
Opportunity to get hung up on fine print - Vehicle service with a hefty euro car add on fee hidden in the fine print etc.
Issues with vendor quality.

Can work well where is it obvious what is in the deal for the business. - Had a great expense doing the harbor bridge walk etc, which I could not have justified at full price. In this case clearly the marginal cost is extremely low (and full paying customers were unlikely to want the very early morning time slot we were put into.

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