Springbank Honey Forced to Receivership, Beekeepers Owed Millions, While Brown Family Re-Registers as ‘Springhill Honey’

Creditors have tipped Brown family companies Springbank Honey Ltd and Glenburn Green Ltd, both of North Canterbury, into receivership. Debts include more than two million dollars outstanding to beekeepers for honey. The list of those waiting to be paid is long but asset sales may be complicated by potential risk of American foulbrood (AFB) contamination and an ongoing investigation by the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI). Meanwhile, the Brown family continues to trade through a new company that uses the Springbank Facebook page.

Springbank Honey is owned by husband and wife Stephen and Tracy Brown, with Stephen acting as director and several of their children working within the business. Glenburn Green owns 3700ha Glenburn Station in Lees Valley, Canterbury.

Springbank Honey owner Stephen Brown. Recently tipped into receivership owing fellow beekeepers millions, the Canterbury company is no stranger to controversy having courted it in 2024 when ordered to destroy AFB-infected beekeeping equipment by fire.

Malcolm Hollis and Richard Nacey of Teneo Financial Advisory have been appointed receivers and Hollis says arrangements have been made to oversee what is an uncertain amount of beehives managed out of Springbank’s Cust base. Livestock on the Glenburn farm are also being appropriately cared for.

Business operations have been halted though, and Hollis calls the coming proceedings “a typical, vanilla, receivership sale”. Assets will be sold and Bank of New Zealand which forced the move will take priority, leaving beekeepers pessimistic about their chances of recouping money owed.

Just how many beehives remain is a big unknown.

“We are in the process of working out what we have got, including hive locations and status of those hives. We need to understand the inventory including its quality,” Hollis says.

Anything but Vanilla

The receivership proceedings might be “vanilla”, but Springbank Honey and Stephen Brown’s actions within the apiculture industry in recent years have been anything but. As well as overseeing a business taking on others’ honey and not paying for it either in full, part, or to terms fully compliant with contracted agreements, the flamboyant beekeeper has regularly rallied against authorities through both social and mainstream media. Rulings which forced the business to destroy beekeeping equipment with either confirmed, or suspected, American foulbrood (AFB) infection have garnered a loud public response from Brown.

That controversy first hit headlines in May 2024 and in June was covered in this publication in an investigation titled Fire, Fury and a Whole Lot of Hot Air which found Brown could provide no evidence to back up many of the claims being made against the AFB Agency, now titled New Zealand Bee Health and Biosecurity (NZBB).

MPI have an active investigation – which they would not comment further on – into Springbank Honey due to breaches of the Biosecurity Act after evidence was supplied by NZBB.

Scope of Contamination

Because of Springbank Honey’s history of high AFB infection rates and non-compliance – including “significant” financial debt to the NZBB Trust – Trust chief executive Niha Long and her staff are keeping a close eye on proceedings in Cust.

An ashen and ash-faced Stephen Brown took to social media in 2024, claiming a conspiracy against his business from the AFB Agency. Now in receivership, Springbank Honey also faces an active investigation regarding breaches of the Biosecurity Act.

“The first thing we did with the receivers was make them aware of the seriousness of AFB and the issue we are tackling in that regard. Beekeepers would be rightly worried about the sale of any AFB-infected gear and that is the last thing NZBB want, that gear to get out or infected hives to be resold,” Long says.

“The receivers are not beekeepers and so we have provided assistance in understanding the scope of contamination and understanding how many AFB-infected hives there could currently be. That plan is still going on.”

For the past two years NZBB have conducted hive inspections twice a year on Springbank hives.

“In that time AFB numbers have declined and the operation has been cleaned up, with our AP2s doing a great job of inspections,” Long says, adding that it has not been an easy task.

“The abuse our AP2s have suffered has not been great, it has taken a toll on our team.”

Statutory Demands

At least three beekeepers have previously taken the first step on the road to forcing liquidation on Springbank Honey, that of seeking reparation for money owed through a statutory demand.

Falcon Apiaries, now taken over by Craig and Paul Stubbs after the death of their father in July 2024, tired of waiting for money which the business was owed and served a statutory demand to Springbank Honey in September of that year, without success. It was an effort to recoup nearly $574,000 owed following their father’s sale of 83 tonnes of honey dew honey in 2024.

Hillside Honey in Northland, who had supplied 41 tonnes of ‘high quality manuka honey’ in 2024, also moved against Springbank, invoking their statutory demand in April 2025 for approximately $580,000. Three months later, now-retired Bay of Plenty beekeeper Dale Gifford and wife Donna-Marie Gifford made a similar move, seeking to gain just shy of $485,000.

The Giffords found success following court proceedings which outlined a series of bumbling mistakes within Springbank Honey and on June 10, 2026, Springbank Honey was ordered to pay the nearly $485,000 plus costs to the Bay of Plenty couple. Dale Gifford says he has received no such payment, and the Browns’ companies were tipped into receivership just under a month later, on July 6.

Hillside Honey, owned by husband and wife Benji and Katie Raumaewa, did not find the same success with their demand for payment as, despite independent lab results stating otherwise, an “in-house” trial at Springbank Honey was said to throw doubt over the HMF levels of the honey supplied. The honey in question was blended and freighted to Germany by Springbank Honey.

(The plight of both the Giffords and Hillside Honey is detailed in The Bitter Sweet Scales of Justice – The Springbank Honey Victims Balancing Fairness with Forgiveness)

Join the Queue

As with most receivership sales, there is a collection of put-out businesses seeking monies owed, but it will be the bank at the head of proceedings and first in line to be paid once Glenburn Station and Springbank Honey assets are sold.

Springbank Honey owner Tracy Brown.

Among those with registered security are Rainbow Honey and Nelson Honey, both owned by Philip Cropp, who says he is “not holding his breath” over whether he will be paid a substantial sum of money owed.

Craig Stubbs also holds serious doubts as to whether they will be paid.

“It sounds like they owe a lot of money so I am not sure we will receive anything or not. I’m hoping something can filter down though because we have been fighting for it for a few years now. It’s not good because my father worked hard for that honey.”

In a similar vein, Benji Raumaewa says he understands the money owed to Bank of New Zealand is so substantial that it throws serious doubt over whether his Hillside Honey business will see anything following the receivership process.

“Who would know? They would need to find someone to buy the business and I am not sure anyone is going to touch it,” Raumaewa says.

Also in the queue of secured creditors are Farmlands, Coca-Cola Amatil, and Mandeville Machine Rentals Ltd.

Spring Continues to Bubble

While Springbank Honey may not be trading, the Facebook page with that name and 13,000 followers appears to have been commandeered by members of the Brown family with the contact email address changed to sales@springhillhoney.co.nz and the profile picture to an AI-generated image of the ‘The Brown’s’ with the tagline ‘Springhill’.

The Brown family have sought to rebrand from the beleaguered Springbank Honey to Springhill Honey Ltd, the company registered just days before the receivers moved in. This AI image is prominently used on the Springbank Facebook page.

Emma MacIntyre, sister of Springbank Honey owner Tracy Brown, and Max Brown, son of owners Stephen and Tracy Brown, in happier times, 2021. The pair are directing a freshly formed company, Springhill Honey Ltd. and attempting to market themselves through existing Springbank Honey channels despite the latter’s assets now, supposedly, in the hands of the receivers and trading halted.

Springhill Honey Ltd. was registered as a company on June 26, only 10 days before the Springbank receivership was gazetted. It is directed by Max Brown and Emma MacIntyre, the former the son of Stephen and Tracy Brown and the latter a Springbank employee, it is ultimately owned by Springbank Group Ltd. That company operates out of the same Cust address as Springbank Honey Ltd, is directed by Stephen Brown and owned by Max Brown and Keziah Brown.

Uncertainty surrounds what assets Springbank Honey owns, especially when it comes to the beehives, and what are the domain of the recently incorporated Springhill Honey, as Hollis says the receivers are still in the process of taking stock of the inventory.

Slow Wheels of Justice

For Long and the NZBB Trust’s perspective, “the wheels of justice can turn slowly”, but they do and are turning, three years on from the first non-compliance at Springbank Honey.

“Beekeepers need to understand there is a cost to non-compliance. I don’t want beekeepers to think non-compliance is not punished. There are consequences, but the process can be long,” she says.

“For those who have been frustrated by goings on over the past few years I want to assure that everything has been done by my team and I to ensure we get to a favourable outcome.”