Patisserie Valerie Going Bust?

[Short Grain]

sorry mods, wrong forum, can you put in News politics and economics please??

Financial Shenanigans at Patisserie Valerie??!!

Cash Reserves of £28.8 Million in May, now need a cash injection to keep afloat!!

Worth £440 Million n Monday, b*gger all today

2,500 staff

Financial Director 'suspended'

https:/.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45824285

That's a lot of money to hide in the books somewhere!

Edited by Short Grain on Thursday 11th October 18:12

Edited by Short Grain on Thursday 11th October 18:14

[TooMany2cvs]

Short Grain said:

Worth £28.8 Million in May

No, worth £440m. They had £28.8m in cash reserves...!

Now they've got HMRC knocking very hard on the door, and threatening to wind part of the business up, over £1m unpaid tax. So how much has actually gone AWOL? Do they even know yet? Probably not...

The FD's suspended... Do they actually know where he is...?

This one's going to be entertaining.

[Short Grain]

TooMany2cvs said:

Short Grain said:

Worth £28.8 Million in May

No, worth £440m. They had £28.8m in cash reserves...!

Now they've got HMRC knocking very hard on the door, and threatening to wind part of the business up, over £1m unpaid tax. So how much has actually gone AWOL? Do they even know yet? Probably not...

The FD's suspended... Do they actually know where he is...?

This one's going to be entertaining.

Think I was editing while you posted 2CVs Forgot HMRC as well.

FD's on a beach somewhere sipping cocktails through a straw after his 'emergency' plastic surgery!!

Edited by Short Grain on Thursday 11th October 18:37

[spikeyhead]

TooMany2cvs said:

Short Grain said:

Worth £28.8 Million in May

No, worth £440m. They had £28.8m in cash reserves...!

Now they've got HMRC knocking very hard on the door, and threatening to wind part of the business up, over £1m unpaid tax. So how much has actually gone AWOL? Do they even know yet? Probably not...

The FD's suspended... Do they actually know where he is...?

This one's going to be entertaining.

I'll take a guess that he's sleeping on a bed containing lots and lots of £20 notes, about £30m of them

[Pica-Pica]

Never heard of them. Not on my radar.

[TooMany2cvs]

Pica-Pica said:

Never heard of them. Not on my radar.

They aren't weren't exactly small.

200+ shops nationally, 2,500 staff.
On top of that, they're partnered with Sainsbury's for cake counters in 70 stores, with PV-branded products available to order from another 80.

[Graveworm]

They didn't allow for my wife and I giving up sugar at the start of 2016

[DoubleSix]

Reckon FD was also in charge of product development...

....cakes looked amazing but had no real depth...

Edited by DoubleSix on Thursday 11th October 21:04

[Octoposse]

We eat (ate?) in one earlier this year after dragging children round the V&A in Kensington.

I was impressed - decent food, lovely staff, and a bill that was about half what I was expecting given the location. Didn't click it was part of a chain unil I recognised the logo elsewhere.

[Octoposse]

Reading between the lines, FD covered up the true profit/loss and cash flow until he could dump his shares and options, rather than siphoned cash?

Must have been others in a position to know?

[MDMA .]

Went to the one on Deansgate. Average food, not that clean and overpriced. My local pie shop is 10 times better Won't be missed.

[AndrewCrown]

Octoposse said:

Reading between the lines, FD covered up the true profit/loss and cash flow until he could dump his shares and options, rather than siphoned cash?

Must have been others in a position to know?

Someone was having their cake and eating it,,,

[irocfan]

TooMany2cvs said:

No, worth £440m. They had £28.8m in cash reserves...!

Now they've got HMRC knocking very hard on the door, and threatening to wind part of the business up, over £1m unpaid tax. So how much has actually gone AWOL? Do they even know yet? Probably not...

The FD's suspended... Do they actually know where he is...?

This one's going to be entertaining.

So 2500 people stand to lose their jobs and "...this'll be entertaining..."? Nice

[soad]

Pica-Pica said:

Never heard of them. Not on my radar.

Coffee and cake, essentially. Some stores are in prime locations, shopping centres etc.

[JNW1]

Octoposse said:

Reading between the lines, FD covered up the true profit/loss and cash flow until he could dump his shares and options, rather than siphoned cash?

Must have been others in a position to know?

The company wasn't small and should have had a level of corporate governance and control in place which was sufficient to prevent one person (such as the FD) being able to manipulate the figures and ultimately bring the whole thing down like a pack of cards. That being the case I can't imagine the external auditors are sleeping terribly comfortably in their beds as if there was indeed a fundamental lack of control they should surely have spotted it; however, it seems like Patisserie Valerie have had nothing but clean audit reports which begs the question what were the auditors doing for their huge fees?

It appears the board of directors is quite small (only three including the FD?) so you'd have thought they'd have been acting as a fairly close knit team and all known what was going on; however, the inference seems to be that the FD has somehow managed to act alone in this so it will be interesting to see what the full story is when the facts finally emerge.

In the meantime it can't be pleasant for all those who work for the company as they must be wondering whether they'll still have a job come the end of the month......

[Cold]

It does seem as though there may have been some criminality or at the least some accounting naughtiness going on here. (Is that vague enough?)
Some might already know that it operates a number of brands: Patisserie Valerie, Druckers - Vienna Patisserie, Philpotts, Baker & Spice and Flour Power City.

Shame to see it go as they do market a nice luxury product. I'll help by making an injection of extra capital tomorrow (in exchange for some time sensitive goods).

[Halb]

my mate used to go on about their mille-feuille
it was nice
they do do good cakes.

[darreni]

It also seems they were not aware of a winding up order lodged by HMRC

[Alucidnation]

We've been to our local-ish one a few times and always found the service and food very good.

[Halb]

Short Grain said:

Think I was editing while you posted 2CVs Forgot HMRC as well.

FD's on a beach somewhere sipping cocktails through a straw after his 'emergency' plastic surgery!!

Edited by Short Grain on Thursday 11th October 18:37

https://youtu.be/gLlVa6HjV8k