Future of Ealing Branch of of Patisserie Valerie Uncertain | ||||
After announcement that the chain is going into administration due to fraud
The future of the Patisserie Valerie in Ealing Broadway is unclear after an announcement that the company which owns the chain has gone into administration. On Monday (21 January) Patisserie Holdings plc had issued a statement saying that they were in discussions with their banks about future training, but the following day it was announced that they were going into administration as a direct result of the ‘significant fraud’ discovered in the company last year. It is understood that Mr Johnson is providing short term cash support to allow staff to be paid through January and then administrators KPMG will be assessing the profitability of each branch to decide which to keep open with a view to selling the business. The company's suspended finance chief Mr Marsh was arrested after the company admitted it had uncovered "significant, and potentially fraudulent, accounting irregularities". The black hole in the company's finances is reported to be as much as £20 million. The first Patisserie Valerie café was opened on Soho's Frith Street in 1926 by Belgian-born Madame Valerie. It was destroyed in World War II and a new site opened at nearby Old Compton Street. Now the chain has 206 cafes across the country, employing around 2,000 staff. January 23rd 2019 |