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Aikens' suppliers 'won't get the £100,000 they are owed'
Benedict Moore-Bridger28 Oct 2008
SUPPLIERS owed more than £100,000 by chef Tom Aikens will not be paid after two of his restaurants went into liquidation, administrators said today.
A total of 160 suppliers are demanding payment after Tom Aikens and Tom's Kitchen were bought by private investors when the firms that ran the restaurants were placed into administration.
Many of the suppliers, some small businesses, face substantial and possibly crippling losses after the Michelin-starred chef's businesses folded.
They are now at the end of a long line of creditors who are waiting to be paid as administrators squeeze as much money as possible from the sale of the businesses' assets.
Richard Toone of the administrators Chantrey Vellacott DFK today confirmed suppliers' worst fears, saying it was unlikely they would ever recover their money. He said there was a hierarchy of creditors to be paid, with the suppliers falling behind organisations such as banks who may have given loans.
He told the Standard: "My gut feeling is [the suppliers] won't get their money. We collect in the assets of the company, sell them and get as much money as possible, and pay it out to creditors in accordance with their rights.
"I don't think [the suppliers] will get much, if anything at all."
T&L Ltd and Tom Aikens Ltd were placed into administration on 17 October and were sold for an undisclosed sum to investment group Oakley Capital Private Equity LP, whose directors are David Till and Peter Dubens, the British entrepreneur who invented colour-changing T-shirts in the Nineties.
Aikens has been made a shareholder in the new company TA Holdco Ltd, but owns a smaller percentage than previously. It is understood the chef is owed £100,000 from various debtors, which is being recovered to help pay the companies' own debts.
Even restaurant ingredients are being sold off to raise capital. The extent of the debts incurred by T&L Ltd and Tom Aikens Ltd is unknown, but the chef has reportedly told suppliers of personal losses of half a million pounds.
Rodney Macken, of Chiswick butchers Macken Brothers Ltd, provided the chef with prime cuts of beef, including 28-day aged Scotch beef, fillet steaks, sirloin and ribs.
He said it was not the first time he has had to suffer a business going "belly-up", but was trying to recover more than £50,000 owed to him by the chef. He said: "I have spoken at length with the administrators but have to wait now. If we don't get any of the money it will be a massive blow. I'm trying to stay positive but when you are talking about £53,000 worth of product, it's hard."
A London-based supplier of fruit and vegetables is thought to be owed £60,000, and a kitchen staff supplier is understood to be owed about £30,000.
Daphne Tilley, a Denbighshire farmer who supplied lamb and beef to the restaurant, is owed more than £9,000.
Creditors will be invited to a meeting in roughly 10 weeks' time, when they will be updated about developments. Aikens's spokesman Maureen Mills said the chef had contacted all of his suppliers to explain the situation.
She said: "The suppliers have played a big part in his success and he has been going through them one by one to see how they can work together again in the future. He really does care."
Reader views (1)
Supporting local produce? Sounds like this chef should put his money where his mouth is!
- Colin, London UK, 28/10/2008 13:00
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