Barbecoa collapsed owing almost £7m to creditors

by XPRESS, 19 March 2018

The total includes £3.7m owed to HSBC as part of its overdraft facility and £3m to unsecured creditors. HSBC is expected to receive a distribution of £190,000 after costs.

The unsecured creditors include Westminster City Council Piccadilly, owed £493,382; Land Security Nova, owed £481,924; Tekene Shopfitting, £65,048; Daily Fish supplies, £34,699; and £34,613 to Natoora – a London-based fruit and vegetable grower.

The company employed 166 members of staff at the point of going into administration and has since made 78 redundant.

Jamie Oliver Holdings has agreed to provide funding to the administrators to enable claims of redundant employees regarding holiday pay and other entitlements to be settled in full.

Barbecoa was incorporated in 2008 and is part of the Jamie Oliver Restaurant Group. It operated two restaurants in St Paul’s and Piccadilly. It was also expected to open in the Nova development in Victoria, however this never came to fruition.

AlixPartners was appointed as administrators in February 2018.

The administrators proposal states: “The company has incurred significant losses over recent periods as a result of expansion and increased competition, rising costs and the generally challenging market conditions within the restaurant sector. The company’s restaurants have underperformed, particularly at the Piccadilly site which has driven the vast majority of the company’s recent trading losses.”

The report also shows that 45 parties formally expressed interest in purchasing the sites however “a number of interested parties cited a range of concerns including the high occupancy costs and the size of the sites as factors that impacted their decision not to progress”.

Both sites were marketed by Christie & Co and One New Change Limited, a subsidiary of Jamie Oliver Restaurant Group purchased the assets and lease of the St Paul’s site and continues to trade.

An offer was made for the Piccadilly site but an agreement could not be reached within “an appropriate timescale”.

Article credit: The Caterer