Thu, 30 Jan 2025 | BUSINESS SALE
A UK-based crêperie café chain with outlets around the globe has been bought out of administration saving over 60 jobs.
The Crêpeaffaire group of companies, comprising Crêpeaffaire Limited, Crêpeaffaire International Limited and Crêpeaffaire Holdings Limited, appointed Brian Burke and Elias Paourou of business advisory firm Quantuma as joint administrators on 14 January.
The Quantuma team negotiated the sale of seven of Crêpeaffaire's nine owned retail sites to Crepe Trading, providing clarity and job security for 66 members of staff. Crêpeaffaire has since closed its sites in Chester and Westfield shopping centre in London. As part of the deal, the franchise business was sold separately and has transferred to Crepe Union, ensuring Crêpeaffaire's franchisees remain unaffected.
Established in 2004 as a family-owned business, the first Crêpeaffaire opened in London. The business expanded, secured investment and grew to around 25 sites comprising a mixture of company owned outlets and franchises in locations including the UK, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
Recent trading performance had been adversely affected by increasing operating costs, given inflationary pressure and, whilst steps were taken to improve trading and cash performance, this coupled with historic debt levels meant that securing new/replacement funding and investment was not possible. As a result, Crêpeaffaire entered into an insolvency process.
Indeed, according to the company's last set of results filed to Companies House for the year ending 31 December 2023, it had net liabilities of just over £1 million compared with £970,000 the year before. Creditors amounts falling due within one year came in at £1.1 million.
Quantuma managing director and joint administrator Brian Burke commented: "I am delighted to have achieved such a positive outcome for this well-established brand, ultimately preserving 66 jobs and its international footprint, with no disruption to ongoing operations. We look forward to seeing Crêpeaffaire achieve success in its next chapter."
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