Brexit

Not so lovely jubbly Restaurant chains continue to suffer in today’s economic climate-a sector that often leads the way in a full blown recession. Jamie Oliver’s Italian restaurant chain has recently had to report that it is suffering cash-flow problems. In the last 12 months it is understood that the 60 strong chain lost £9.9m and has been propped up by a short term loan from its parent company. That loss equates to each trading unit losing over £3,000 per week, every week of the year. Well Jamie has called in the beancounters to devise a “cashflow management plan” which will no doubt see a number of closures and potential job losses. At the beginning of this year, the chain closed 6 outlets, but the 120 staff that were affected were offered jobs with the rest of the group. At the time, the then Chief Executive stated “….this is a…

When I tell people that I am an Insolvency Practitioner, the universal response is almost always “Well you must be busy” - that and the fact that they usually take a couple of steps backwards. Now, when I tell people that I am an Insolvency Practitioner, most people say “Well, you are going to be even busier, what with the Brexit Effect” - and of course, the couple of steps backwards. In fact, the Insolvency Profession has not been busy for the last 7 years and, apart from a relatively small upward blip around the time of the 2008 financial crisis, the profession wasn’t particularly busy in the 7 years after the start of the new millennium either. Financial failure rates, for both individual and companies, have been on a long decline for many years now, but people’s perception is very different. And as Tom Peters, the American business guru,…