Northampton-based bakery Oliver Adams has closed its 17 outlets resulting in 150 employee redundancies.
Insolvency experts BRI has confirmed that trading has ceased after Oliver Adams “failed” in its attempts to save the company.
“A Compulsory Voluntary Arrangement had been signed on 1 June last year, which aimed to pay off the company’s debts, but Oliver Adams has failed in its efforts,” BRI told British Baker.
“As supervisors of the arrangement, we have certain obligations. When it fails, we have to petition the courts for a compulsory liquidation. The director [of Oliver Adams] has instructed another non-local firm of insolvency practitioners to take the required steps to put the company into voluntary liquidation with a meeting of creditors being held on 13 April.”
Ian Cooke, insolvency manager for BRI, has been working to keep the business afloat over the past year. He revealed to British Baker that, according to external sources, six of the sites have been taken over by organisation Bakery Organic.
Adams is a traditional craft bakery that had originally been managed by the family line since 1856, but was passed over to director Mark Jarvis over two years ago by Thomas Adams.
Oliver Adams was a member of the British Society of Baking organisation and chairman Paul Turner told British Baker that it was a sad situation for the established and well-known craft bakery to close down.
British Baker has contacted Oliver Adams and Bakery Organic for comment.
In May 2016, Oliver Adams closed nine of its bakeries for ’restructuring’ and claimed it was "losing money hand over fist".
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