Sugar lovers at the Max Brenner cafe in Charlestown Square only needed a few words to explain why they hoped the cafe would survive the chocolate bar chain’s collapse.
“Because chocolate!” said Amber, 16, from Lake Macquarie.
With a substantial school holiday crowd, it was business as usual at the Charlestown Square outlet despite the cloud over the future of Max Brenner’s 37 stores.
The Age reported on Wednesday, October 3, that the chain had entered into voluntary administration.
McGrathNicol, the administrator appointed by Max Brenner Australia’s board on Sunday, told the news outlet it planned to keep the chain’s shopfronts open while it undertakes a review.
Customers interviewed at Newcastle’s sole Max Brenner outlet on Wednesday said they hoped the cafe would remain open.
“It’s different to everything around here,” Joel Holland said.
Cooper, 10, and Kaley, 6, said days out with their aunt, Belinda, wouldn’t be the same without a chocolate fondue.
“We’re glad to get a sugar fix,” Belinda said.
“We’re off to Timezone now to work off the chocolate.”
A manager at the Max Brenner chocolate outlet in Charlestown Square said she was unable to comment to the media.
The Charlestown Square store opened in 2010, more than a decade after the first Max Brenner chocolate bar opened in Australia, in Sydney’s Paddington.
At the time of the Charlestown opening, Max Brenner (aka “the bald man”) told the Newcastle Herald, “Australians have totally embraced my unique way of experiencing chocolate.”
The chain has 15 stores in NSW, 12 in Queensland, five in Melbourne, two in the ACT and Western Australia, and one in South Australia and the Northern Territory.
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