Former Cafe De Vili's franchisees face court scrutiny over alleged ‘phoenixing’
The former operators of a Cafe De Vili's outlet in Adelaide's Elizabeth are facing Federal Court examination over allegations they engaged in ‘phoenixing’ after a rival bakery opened at the same site just days after the business collapsed owing $2.6 million.
Phoenixing occurs when a business is shut down or wound up with debts left unpaid, only for those behind it to establish a new company that continues much the same operations.
The Elizabeth branch of the iconic South Australian bakery chain, run by Cafe 24/7, closed and entered liquidation in early October 2024. A St Peters Bakehouse outlet opened at the same premises later that same month.
Narda Holdings, the franchisor behind Cafe De Vili's, has now been granted Federal Court permission to examine directors Aaron Disibio and Vincent Fazzalari along with their wives, over concerns about the circumstances surrounding the collapse.
A liquidation report from January 2025 revealed Cafe 24/7 owed more than $2.6 million, including $1.38 million to related entities, $1 million to secured creditor The Big Grill, and $64,250 in unpaid wages and superannuation owed to 29 employees. The amount owed to Narda Holdings was not disclosed.
According to a judgment handed down this month, Justice Stephen McDonald noted that roughly six months before Cafe 24/7 went into liquidation, entities linked to Leah Disibio and Anna Fazzalari acquired three separate St Peters Bakehouse businesses, located at Thebarton, Ridgehaven and St Peters.
Narda Holdings argued it should be permitted to investigate what it described as "illegal phoenix concerns" that the liquidation may have been used by the directors "as a tool to continue to trade at the Elizabeth Site, through St Peters Elizabeth (which was controlled by their wives)."
The franchisor further submitted that the liquidation allegedly allowed the directors to keep trading at the site "without having to pay the creditors of Café 24/7, and with the benefit of certain assets and former employees of Café 24/7."
Narda Holdings also raised concerns that Cafe 24/7 may have undervalued assets before transferring them to the wife-linked entities that went on to purchase the three St Peters Bakehouse stores, and that commercially sensitive information relating to the Vili's Elizabeth business may have been shared to benefit the new operation.
Cafe 24/7 had attempted to block the examination, arguing it amounted to an abuse of process that would let a competitor "obtain commercially sensitive financial, operational and intellectual property information."
Justice McDonald dismissed that argument, ruling he was satisfied Narda Holdings' concerns were "genuinely" held and that the evidence presented gave "a coherent basis for Narda to hold those concerns."
Jonathan Jackson, 20th August 2026
