CiA
Threshers on the rack as 2000 jobs go.
Almost 2000 jobs will be lost at chains such as Threshers and Wine Rack, it emerged today, as the administrators to their collapsed owner First Quench said it would close hundreds of stores as part of the adminstration.
First Quench, which also owns Bottoms Up, Haddows, a Scottish chain, and The Local, went into administration on October 29, after being hit by cut-price supermarket competition.
KPMG, the adminstrators to First Quench, said today that 381 stores will close across the brands, which will result in 1908 redundancies in those stores that are closing and 34 at the head office in Welwyn Garden City.
The latest store closures are in addition to the 373 shops KPMG said earlier this month would be closing, with the loss of 1738 jobs. The administrators had previously announced 81 job cuts at the firm’s head office.
Source: Times Online
Total losses = 1908
O’ Neill boardwear stores go into administration.
Sandcity who own O’Neill have gone into administration with a potential loss of 90+ staff at the 11 stores around the country. Administrators KPMG have been brought in and they are going to try and find a buyer for the ailing company. Sandcity is actually owned by the clothing company Black Leisure.
Blacks decided there was “no reasonable prospect” of restoring loss-making Sandcity – the subsidiary which owns the stores – to profit.
Potential job loss = 90
Lingerie maker Intimas has brought in the administrators.
Lingerie maker Intimas has brought in the administrators after a long spell of poor trading in the Economic Downturn. The Derbyshire-based business has called in PricewaterhouseCoopers to sell the company as a going concern and protect its 200-odd employees’ positions. The administrators are to review the business and the sale options for Intimas and its main brands. Intimas reported £1.65m of losses in the first half of 2008, due to declining sales.
Intimas specialises in designing women’s lingerie and swimwear. It also manufactures brand goods for labels including Ted Baker, Lepel and Charnos, as well as collections for retailers on the high street. Intimas signed a three-year contract to make products for Caprice Lingerie, in 2006.
Stuart Maddison, joint administrator at PricewaterhouseCoopers, believes that the sale will attract plenty of interest.
Source: Hanna Lahabib at Business Sales Report
Hardware buying group Mica UK in administration.
Mica UK Ltd, a Stafford-based hardware buying and marketing group has gone into administration after a problematic expansion strategy, followed by the Economic Downturn.
The newly launched product Mica Vault, meant an increase of new members, and output levels, however the sales were not enough to cover costs.
The group has suffered from increasing losses and poor cashflow, in the recession.
Mica is a voluntary trading group, which allows its members, independent hardware shops, to compete with larger rivals such as B&Q. The group is owned by the independent hardware store operators, according to the company’s website. The group has over 160 member stores in the UK. The retailers also purchase their stocks through Mica.
Leonard Curtis has been appointed as administrators to the group, and has taken over the warehouse and stock.
The business is to continue to trade under the name of Mica DIY. A long-term supplier to the hardware business Stax Trade Centres is to take over the Vault as Mica’s wholesaler.
Source: Rob Moore
UK Coffee Republic has been placed into administration.
Three main subsidiaries of coffee chain Coffee Republic, Coffee Republic Franchising and Goodbean have been placed into administration after suffering from decreasing consumer spending.
Richard Hill and David Crawshaw of KPMG have been hired as joint administrators. Mr Hill has received a substantial amount of interest, partly from well-known companies. The administrators aim to sell the businesses as going concerns as quickly as possible. Underperforming stores will be shut down and redundancies will be made.
It was only in December that the company announced it had cleared its bank debts of £3.3 million, and was expecting to become cash flow positive by April 2009. Trading in the UK had apparently become stable, though it would be more cautious with its expansion plans. The cafe chain had 184 stores in Britain at the end of last year, 114 of which were concessions, 51 were franchises and the company ran 19.
Coffee Republic was established by brother and sister team Bobby and Sahar Hashemi in 1995. The company failed in its attempt to keep up with now larger competitors such as Starbucks and Costas. Its overly ambitious expansion meant that it has struggled to reach profitability.
The holding company Coffee Republic plc has not been taken into administration.
Source: By Caroline Clayfield
Companies in Administration. (CiA)
- Vanmaker LDV has been placed into administration with 850 jobs possibly being lost. Attempts to sell Birmingham-based LDV as a going concern have failed.
- CragRats theatre and training company goes into adminstration. More than 70 people are believed to have lost their jobs after an award-winning theatre and training company hit financial trouble.
- Sufolk Marine survey company goes bust with a major operation in Lowestoft has gone into administration resulting in 27 local redundancies – and the propsect of more to come.
- Venture Packaging Innovations goes into administration. The company supplies packaging for cosmetics, healthcare, lifestyle and entertainment industries and has been going for 20 years. It specializes in multi-colour printed cartons, bespoke packaging in card, specialist packaging or ‘unusual folding items’. The reasons for the company’s decline into administration are still unknown.
- The Portland Spa Hotel and Conference Centre has been seriously hit by the recession and has called in the administrators.
- Harvey World Travel has gone into administration and sold almost half its branches to newly-created company Vacation World.
- The Staincliffe Hotel in Seaton Carew, near Hartlepool, is looking for a new owner after chef Mark Jones was forced to place the business into administration.
- Deloitte has been lined up to potentially provide administrators to satellite sports business Setanta. The broadcaster is believed to be struggling to pay off it bills for the rights to Premiership games and for the Scottish Premier League.
- Rock board places the company in administration as the slump in the property market claims another high-profile victim. Rock, the property company founded by Paul Kemsley is one of Sir Alan Sugar’s closest advisers.
- Challenge Finance collapses after suspected client fraud.
- Paterson Printing in administration with 40 staff axed.
Bay Trading to sack 1230 employees.
Bay Trading confirmed today that 1230 employees would lose their jobs while 566 jobs would be saved after a company called the Rinku Group bought the remaining 130 shops. Last month Bay Trading went into administration and the 1800 staff members at 260 branches though it was all over.
Job losses = 1230
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Drop Celebrity from Antony Worrall Thompson and add Business Fool!
It’s good to see Antony Worrall Thompson in the news again and I am quite surprised he is not making a big hoo haa about his poor business skills. I did a short post on AWT not so long ago (10th February 2009 – Celebrity chef ‘Antony Worrall Thompson’ goes into administration) and he also appears in my CCV (Celebrity Crunch Victims) page.
He was making a big fuss about the banks not lending him more money for his FOUR DOOMED RESTAURANTS. As if they would? Just because he is a so called “celebrity“, he thinks he is special and should get a lot of media attention and help from the banks. At the time I said he must have run his businesses very poorly to have gone into administration.
Well I stumbled upon this intresting article today. It seems his administrators believe he ran his business poorly. Isn’t that interesting?
Read the full article here – How celebrity chef cooked up financial mess?
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Mountgrange have gone into administration.
Edinburgh’s biggest development project in a decade has been put on hold after the firm behind it went into administration.
The £300m Caltongate development by Mountgrange Capital has faltered after the developer said the Bank of Scotland had pulled out its financial support.
Mountgrange said the bank had classified its loan as a “toxic asset”.
The development in the city’s Old Town attracted hundreds of objections from campaigners and heritage groups.
The plans included a luxury hotel, an office complex and 200 homes.
It was the biggest project in Edinburgh since the construction of the £414m Scottish Parliament, and was expected to take up to five years to complete.
Companies that went into administration week ending 13/03/2009.
- MVM London (Events) – part of the same group that includes Moving Venue Caterers, MVM Sydney and MVM Dubai – has confirmed it has been placed in administration.
- 23 jobs have been axed at Livingston based baker Patisserie UK after it was put into administration following the loss of a major contract with Costa Coffee.
- Plasplugs founded by Stuart Turner in the early 1970s, is in administration. The Burton-on-Trent based business has been in trouble for the last three weeks and its offices have been deserted since the start of the month.
- More than 120 staff at coach company Fraser Eagle have been made redundant after administrators took control of the ailing company.
- One of Hampshire’s oldest established computer firms has gone into administration and put scores of jobs at risk. Minstead based Triangle Computer Services went to the wall after a “dramatic fall in demand” saw income plummet to just ten per cent of forecast levels.
Wrekin Construction Group placed into administration.
It seems Wrekin, which was established in 1960, is about to go into administration because RBS will not lend them a short-term loan of £2million.
The bank has refused, despite being 70 per cent owned by the Government and having recently accepted a bailout of £20billion in taxpayers’ cash.
A spokesman for the building firm said:
Wrekin has an overdraft facility of £4.25million and we were overdrawn by £2.8million. However, winding-up petitions have resulted in the accounts being frozen. The current order book, up to the beginning of March 2009, was £40million. Today, we have received two new orders, each valued at £5million a year for the next five years.
Possible job losses of 500 people.
Companies that went into administration week ending 14/02/2009.
- Hughmark International, which runs the High Wycombe’s market has gone into administration.
- The company responsible for managing the ill-fated gallery space in Will Alsop’s The Public has ceased trading and gone into administration. All 32 of the company’s staff have been made redundant, with Baker Tilly appointed as administrator.
- Stylo joins its shoe businesses into administration. The owner of the PriceLess and Barratt shoe chains, Stylo Plc, has gone into administration after being unable to reach agreements with creditors and landlords.Stylo will join Priceless and Barratts in administration after landlords and creditors rejected a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA), which would have enabled Stylo to restructure its debt, and close 150 of its 400 stores.
- Black Country manufacturer Jebron and its sister company Jebron Plating have gone into administration. Administrators James Martin and John Lowe of business recovery specialists Begbies Traynor said the move was necessary to secure the future of the two businesses, which are based in Kings Hill, Wednesbury.
- Quality Resorts Hotels has gone into administration, according to press reports from Commercial Court 1 de Santa Cruz de Tenerife. The company based in Adeje, has declared itself in a situation of voluntary liquidation for debts with the company Incesa, but the legal declaration is a call to all creditors to make their claims.
Celebrity chef ‘Antony Worrall Thompson’ goes into administration.
Here is a story getting a lot of news today and all because AWT is a “CELEBRITY”, which in layman terms means he is somehow better than you and I.
Forget the fact that four of his restaurants have gone into administration. Why has he got four restuarants in the first place? Why not run two and ensure they are doing well and then open another one or two when the others are firmly grounded? Businesses go into administration for a reason, because they are badly managed, can’t pay the bills, are most likely running at a loss. Dah…
Just because it’s been the cool thing in the past to cook up masses of debt, doesn’t mean it’s right Mr Celebrity. I think AWT has been a bit greedy and now it’s come back to bite him on the arse. Yes the banks have been at fault as well, but 4 wrongs don’t make a right.
AWT said: It makes me cry. It is just appalling. I am furious, to be honest, that the banks didn’t support me.
Stop winging about your losses. Think about those poor staff that you have made redundant. They should be the ones crying.
Job losses = Unknown
Hudson & Middleton Ltd go into administration.
19 jobs have been lost at Hudson & Middleton because the company has gone into administration. They have been around since 1895. You would have thought in that time they would have figured out how to make money.
Their website claims they are one of the last remaining ‘bone china mug makers‘ in Britain… that is a shame! I wonder why the English Heritage have not stepped in and saved them… Hey! there is an idea for English Heritage.
Jesse Shirley and Son Limited, is another pottery company facing the same demise as Hudson & Middleton and sadly 36 jobs are going at this family run business.
Job losses: 55
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McLeish Brothers go into administration.
Quoted from Tenon Press
The origins of the company stretch back more than 60 years when the McLeish family started a butcher and grocery business in Dundee. Still headquartered in the city, the business was acquired by new owners in 2007, rebranded as McLeish Brothers and launched an ambitious store opening programme across Scotland, which was to be followed by further expansion into England.
Job losses: 175
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