Dozens of small businesses suffer after Halliwells’ collapse
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Documents leaked to The Lawyer have revealed the full extent of collapsed firm Halliwells’ creditors.
The joint administrators, Dermot Power and Shay Bannon of BDO, made their first report to Halliwells’ creditors last week. Between them the creditors are owed £14.1m.
The largest sum is owed to HM Revenue & Customs, but the extensive list also includes small businesses, including florists, stationers and several chauffeur companies, as well as charity St John Ambulance.
The owner of one City sandwich shop that supplied Halliwells with thousands of pounds worth of food up until the day the firm collapsed believes the unpaid bills may result in job cuts at his business.
Daljit Randhawa, who runs Pavarotti’s Sandwich Bar on Threadneedle Street near Halliwells’ London office, said the firm ordered significant quantities of food in the weeks before it went bankrupt.
“They had a lot of meetings and took the p*ss,” added Randhawa. “I went on holiday and came back to find they must have racked up [a bill of] £3,500-£4,000.”
Documents indicate that Pavarotti’s was owed £2,000, but Randhawa claims he has evidence of unpaid bills totalling £6,500 dating back to November last year.
On 23 June, the day before Halliwells filed its notice of intention to appoint an administrator, Randhawa says the firm ordered food including spring rolls, chicken satays and crisps worth £319.26.
“I’m thinking of letting somebody go,” added Randhawa. “It’s bad enough with the recession, my business is down by 35 per cent as it is. This is a lot of money.”
The Lawyer contacted Halliwells’ former accounts department, but it did not return calls.
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Readers' comments (19)
The Last Supper | 20-Sep-2010 9:57 am
No doubt the Cock crowed thrice and Austin and Craig denied the firm was going into administration thrice. They then had a damn good feed. May their arteries harden from the copious amounts of free crisps they consumed.
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Anonymous | 20-Sep-2010 2:40 pm
Absolutely disgusting. From what I've heard, Heatons are regretting taking on the dross that is Mr Austin in the wake of his 'woe is me' exclusive. Perhaps he can use those 'free' sandwiches to comfort-eat away the unhappiness caused by his new colleagues abhorrence towards him. It's all coming out on Halliwells now.
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Anonymous | 20-Sep-2010 3:53 pm
I feel sorry for the small business affected by this, but really, if Halliwells had unpaid bills going back to November last year, together with rumblings of insolvency, perhaps Mr Randhawa should have thought twice before carrying on supplying them.
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Anonymous | 20-Sep-2010 4:38 pm
Quite a lot of one man businesses - i.e. various barristers - have also been left unpaid
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Anonymous | 20-Sep-2010 5:03 pm
I've heard of several cases where counsels' fees and other disbursements were billed to clients, clients paid bills but counsel etc never got paid. Wonder where that money went.
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JB | 20-Sep-2010 5:40 pm
isn't that a matter for the SRA?
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Lenin | 20-Sep-2010 6:00 pm
...and just like the Administrator, no mention here of the £20 million reverse premium which the equity partners of Halliwells ran off with and which, if they were decent human beings, they would pay back to the taxpayer. And the ruling class of this country has a nerve, in an attempt to divide and rule the working classes, to have a go at people who are too sick, old or disabled to work! I know who I would round up at dawn.
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Jo | 21-Sep-2010 12:09 pm
Ref Anonymous 20 September 2010 at 3:53pm, that's really big of you to have a go at a small business, oh “but really”. Mr Randhawa deserves our support , not your silly remarks. Lawyers should be fighting for people like him instead of rolling over to big business. Mr Randhawa was an honest man who would never have treated people the way the greedy equity partners of Halliwells treated him. Are you going to criticise the College of Law who were owed nearly half a million pounds, or is it just the little people you attack? Also, what about all of the FSMs of Halliwells who parted with their own money, and all of the solicitors who kept working for Halliwells even though it was obvious to all that the place was going down the toilet? Are you going to have a go at them too? To quote Mark Twain in reply to your pathetic comment , "it is better to keep your mouth shut and to appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt". I sincerely hope you are not a solicitor but I fear, you probably are.
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Anonymous | 21-Sep-2010 12:31 pm
Jo - Get off your high horse. I am not "having a go" at the little people. It is good business sense when, if you have large unpaid bills going back a year, to reconsider supplying said business. And, yes, that goes for the College of Law too. I agree that the whole Halliwells situation is disgusting, but jumping on the bandwagon and complaining about unpaid bills a year after the fact is a bit much.
Grow up.
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PS | 21-Sep-2010 1:28 pm
Jo - I quite agree.
@Anonymous - you strike me as being a lawyer with little experience of business and just the ability to look at businesses / clients with the view: "I would never have been that stupid". Even if you have a point, I suggest it would be more appropriate to keep such views to yourself on a public message board. What Halliwells did to this businessman was disgraceful and as a lawyer you should be roundly condemning such behaviour, not shifting the blame.
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