Accused of colluding with Christchurch Mad Butcher franchisee Shane Vickery in sale of his franchised butchery, Elliot Booth has been blocked for two years from operating a new butchery business operating from the same Ferry Road site with the same staff, supposedly free from Mad Butcher’s franchise terms.
In the High Court, Justice Paulsen ruled it is likely Mr Booth was well aware of rules governing the Mad Butcher Ferry Road franchise, holding Mr Booth potentially liable for ‘inducing a breach of contract;’ in effect, enforcing against Mr Booth what is a two year restraint of trade blocking Shane Vickery from setting up a new business in competition with Mad Butcher.
Mr Booth was never a party to the Mad Butcher/Vickery franchise contract.
The two year restraint of trade is intended to protect the commercial value of Mad Butcher’s supply chain and customer base.
General principles of franchise law are clear: a franchisee might establish a personal connection with customers, but business assets, both tangible and intangible, belong to the franchisor.
Evidence was given of Mr Vickery’s Harvest Wagon Ltd not renewing the lease for its Ferry Road site in early 2026 at a time when Mr Vickery was in discussions with his acquaintance Mr Booth about the possibility of Mr Booth taking up the lease and buying his business.
Unusually for a Mad Butcher franchise, Mr Vickery’s Harvest Wagon sold grocery items as well as meat. Evidence was given of meat accounting for about 55 per cent of sales.
The court was told of both Mr Vickery and Mr Booth signalling to Mad Butcher head office that Mr Booth was buying the grocery business only.
Mad Butcher later learnt that Mr Booth had paid $800,000 to buy Mr Vickery’s business, including its butchery equipment, taken out a new seven year lease on the Ferry Road site at a lower rental than that Mad Butcher itself was willing to pay and had hired the nearly twenty employees previously working in Mr Vickery’s fresh meat department.
Imposing a temporary injunction blocking Mr Booth from operating a butchery, Justice Paulsen ruled it is seriously arguable that Mr Vickery’s Harvest Wagon and Mr Booth with his company Harvest Market 2026 Ltd worked to engineer immediate establishment of a butchery in breach of a restraint of trade prohibiting Mr Vickery or any ‘interconnected’ business from setting up in competition for a period of two years.
This injunction does not block Mr Booth’s new business from selling products other than meat.
The court was told there is ongoing litigation between Mad Butcher and Mr Vickery.
Mad Butcher Holdings Ltd v. Vickery – High Court (20.05.26)
26.161