Shock at huge debts

A dozen Jamie Oliver Italian Restaurants are closing down after the business went into administration with debts of almost £10m.

The news has left a number of print industry companies as unsecured creditors including ABC Imaging UK, KD Media publishing, KK Balers, Harper Collins Publishers and Haymarket Media.

Some of the restaurants are staying open as the administrators try to find buyers for them while others have shut immediately including the ones in Bath and Harrogate.

The list of creditors leaves a trail of debts which are unlikely to be paid since there is a long list of landlords, banks and councils chasing huge amounts including Gatwick Airport who are left with an unpaid bill of £2,873,325.

Creditors owed large amounts

Some of the figures listed by creditors are eye-wateringly high while many of those owed to sole traders and smaller companies are in the hundreds which are enough to knock a firm sideways for a time. One of the interesting questions is how did the banks, landlords and councils allow the company to run up such massive debts when BT are only chasing £286.

Ian Carrott of the print intelligence firm ICSM says many of the sole traders and smaller companies have clearly kept a tight leash on credit control unlike some of the landlords. He comments: “A household name like Jamie Oliver can have a hypnotic effect on a supplier. It will tempt them to extend credit in the belief the client is too big to fail.

“However, this is not true as the Jamie Oliver situation and the collapse of Carillion show. The simple answer is to keep to the terms of your trading terms and conditions and not to allow extra credit as appears to have happened here.”

List of those restaurants closing

The Bath Chronicle newspaper said that the staff of the restaurant in the city had been laid off earlier this week along with those at Bristol, Bluewater shopping centre in Kent, Chelmsford, Greenwich, Harrogate, Kingston, Milton Keynes, Piccadilly Diner, Reading, St Albans and Threadneedle Street in London.

The restaurants are run as ‘partners’ by the Jamie Oliver Group meaning each one can buy services locally including printing and stationery supplies. That accounts for the extremely long list of creditors – many in the printing industry.

The image shows the Jamie Oliver Italian Restaurant website

For more news and views on British industry or to join ICSM and prevent bad debts by getting inside credit information and early warnings of businesses in trouble visit icsmcredit.com or call +44 (0) 844 854 1850 or email icsm@icsmcredit.com

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