Australian hole-in-the-wall doughnut store Doughnut Time went into liquidation in March. The company, which was scheduled to be sold by owner Damian Griffiths to CEO and managing director Dan Strachotta, went into liquidation after the sale fell through.

Before the failed sale, in an email to Fairfax media, Damian had said, “I had a go and made lots of mistakes. Australia is a small market and a very tough retail environment and Australians are not too accepting of failure.”

Would-be owner Dan Strachotta had planned on closing the majority of Doughnut Time stores, and focusing on a select group of stores in Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Sydney and Melbourne, which he thought he could recover. These stores have now all closed.

In a March email to Doughnut Time employees (supplied to the ABC), Victoria state manager Vanessa Gaddi-Chmielewski wrote, “Today has been the last day of Doughnut Time. I just received news from Dan that the deal with the new company has been blocked by Damian. He will not sign the Doughnut Time trademark to Dan. As a result, the entire company will go into liquidation—including the stores that Dan was supposed to take over.”

Neither Damian nor Dan has been available to comment on the failed deal.

Michael Caspaney, who is administrating the liquidation, told the ABC “The company has cashflow problems and couldn’t pay its employees. That seems to be the main reason for the collapse.”

Staff allege they are collectively owed up to $200,000 in unpaid wages and have set up a GoFundMe page to try and recover their pay. Michael encourages workers whose debt is less than three months old to contact the Fair Entitlements Guarantee to claim unpaid wages.