A deep dive into what Katie from MAFS Australia’s social enterprise business really does

The MAFS Australia bride Katie has only just graced our screens, but she already seems like such a sweetheart. She’s also a super successful business owner. Here’s an investigation into what Katie’s business actually is, and what she does all day when she’s not being done dirty on MAFS Australia.

Katie from MAFS Australia is an actual She-EO

Katie did briefly touch on what her business is during her intro on MAFS Australia. She said: “I am the CEO of a social enterprise group of restaurants which split our profits helping others who are doing it tough and help them with emergency food and housing.”

She runs a group called EATS – which stands for Empowering All Through Support. There are restaurants across South East Queensland in Carindale, Eumundi, Kawana and Pacific Fair. The food is French-inspired, and looks super delish.

Profits from these restaurants go to charity projects in Peru which help people with education, housing and food during emergencies.

Katie was a finalist in the 2021 Young Business Woman of the Year Awards in the Sunshine Coast area for all this work. Slay.

One of her businesses actually went into liquidation before MAFS

Er, so one of Katy’s businesses actually went under in June 2023. Wild the Lifestyle Co was a business that owned two restaurants in the Sunshine Coast area. This business collapsed last year. The liquidator’s report showed Wild the Lifestyle Co owed $493,927 AUD (£384,670) at this time, including $150,709 AUD (£73,791) in unpaid superannuation to employees. Superannuation is a type of pension scheme in Australia.

Apparently Katie had money troubles because she wanted to help her staff during the pandemic?

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Katie’s friend offered an explanation for these underpayments – apparently Katy got into this financial trouble because she was didn’t want to fire people during the pandemic and was worried about them.

Her friend Farina Bibi told Daily Mail Australia: “The reason why there were superannuation underpayments is she actually tried super hard to not let staff go during Covid because she was worried about them.

“The Katie I know is so kind and caring. She kept on more people than she needed or could afford because that is what the Australian Government’s JobKeeper program was supposed to help with.

“Unfortunately, the conditions of the program were not well communicated to employers. Katie lost out big time because she was still responsible for the super payments for all those extra people she had kept on.”

It sounds like Katie felt bad for her staff during Covid, and said they could stay on, thinking she could pay her employees through the government’s JobKeeper Covid scheme. She then realised she still had to pay everybody’s superannuation and couldn’t quite afford it.

Katie told  The Sunshine Coast Daily she intends to repay all the money.

Her Sunshinse Coast restaurant was also robbed during the lockdown in 2020. Thieves stole cash and iPads.

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Featured image of Katie on MAFS via Nine / Channel 4, and featured images of Katie in her restaurants via Instagram.