70 jobs saved as restaurant chain is bought out of administration
A chain of wine bars across the country has been bought out of administration by an investor backed group.
Veeno, which was based in Manchester, had bars in the South West, the Midlands, the North West, Yorkshire and Scotland.
It is the latest catering business to fall foul of the slump in the casual dining sector which has led to a number of high profile closures.
As part of the deal nine bars have been sold to the new investors and 68 jobs have been saved.
Julie Palmer and Steve Powell from Begbies Traynor were appointed as joint administrators on Friday, March 1st, of the Veeno group.
The deal, which has been coordinated from Begbies’ Salisbury office, resulted in the successful sale of the business and assets of nine of the venues to a new investor-backed group.
Julie Palmer said: “The restaurant and bar sector in the UK continues to display signs of distress with the adverse effects of the economy on discretionary spend making it difficult to sustain profitable operations.
“That said, where there is a unique offering and customer experience, as is the case with Veeno, it is hoped that the restructuring that the business has undergone will allow it to prosper going forwards”.
Begbies Traynor were advised by a team from JMW Solicitors led by Richard Wolff, head of corporate recovery and insolvency.
Last month the firm announced it was reviewing its estate in a move which led to the closure of a venue in Harrogate.
The review followed the arrival of Rodrigue Trouillet who was appointed commercial director last November.
Talks had been taking place with landlords at a number of Veeno sites. The company had 17 sites in total. Veeno had 12 company-owned and five franchise sites.
At the time the review was announced the founder Nino Caruso said: “We have grown very fast in the past few years and with the management change we felt this was the right time to look at the estate.”
The firm, which was launched in 2013 in Manchester, had venues in a range of locations including Manchester, Bristol, Brighton, Cardiff, Chester, Croydon, Edinburgh, Kidderminster, Stratford-upon-Avon, Nottingham, Reading, Liverpool, Leicester and Leeds.
It is understood that the Halifax branch of Veeno has already closed, and that among the locations Begbies Traynor has not been instructed to act on are Veeno Edinburgh, Veeno York, Veeno Norwich, and Veeno Salisbury.
