Scandal-hit food firm went under owing almost £5m
Loscoe Chilled Foods, the company at the centre of a meat fraud investigation, went under owing over £4.8m to creditors, according to documents seen by TheBusinessDesk.com.
The Heanor company ceased trade at the beginning of April, with the loss of around 120 jobs, when administrators from FRP Advisory were appointed.
The firm had been trading profitably but things quickly turned sour after its British Retail Consortium Global Standards licence was suspended after it had been subject to a National Food Crime unit investigation.
During March, Loscoe Chilled Foods said it was “fully supporting” the Food Standards Agency with an investigation into an isolated incident concerning sliced corn beef supplied to a customer in March 2021. The company said this didn’t represent a food safety issue and there was no suggestion that any other customers had been affected.
However, the news spread and Loscoe, which operated from a 100,000 sq ft factory in Heanor, lost several of its key clients – leaving it unable to continue to trade.
Three people at the food company were arrested in March after police and Trading Standards officials turned up at the firm.
The majority of the the firm’s staff were laid off on March 21.
Steven Ross and Allan Kelly from FRP Advisory were appointed as joint administrators on April 3.
In recently-published accounts for the year to March 27 2022, Loscoe Foods reported that profits had been “stretched” due to a rise in the National Minimum Wage. Turnover increased slightly to almost £16.15m, but profits fell sharply to just £30,261 – down from £258,166.
