How did it all go wrong?

JONES the Grocer (JTG) was founded by Lindsay Jones in 1996 as a food emporium in Sydney's eastern suburbs, and sold to former engineer-turned-food supplier John Manos in 2005.

By 2012, Mr Manos had turned it into a A$33 million (S$34.2 million) business with 18 stores across territories such as Singapore, New Zealand and the UAE. After an introduction through "a mutual colleague", Mr Manos sold a 50 per cent stake to L Capital Asia in July that year, with further ambitions to "grow fivefold within five years" in markets such as Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, China and Japan.

Later in 2012, Jones acquired parts of a troubled Sydney restaurant group run by celebrity chef Justin North, and resuscitated its Becasse Bakery and Charlie & Co gourmet burger shops in Australia, along with offshoots in Singapore in 2013.