Failed Woodford restaurant operator owes over £200,000 to creditors
M & Co Services, operator of the award-winning Woodford restaurant in South Woodford, north east London, went into administration owing more than £207,000 to a string of unsecured creditors.
Liquidator Carter Clark was appointed to undertake a company voluntary liquidation on 28 February this year.
The restaurant ceased trading at lunchtime on 15 February, when diners were reportedly ushered out suddenly and the locks changed.
Now it has emerged that M & Co Services, which was incorporated on 19 January 2016 and lists Moneer Saeed Gul as its director, owed a six-figure sum to a total of 19 separate creditors.
Among those owed money are Direct Meats, based in Colchester, which is owed just over £10,000, wine merchant Enotria & Coe, which is more than £22,000 out of pocket, and fruit and vegetable merchant Wild Harvest, due a total of more than £12,000.
Meanwhile, the tax man is owed more than £9,600 in unpaid PAYE and national insurance contributions, and wholesale meat supplier Traymoor is owed nearly £18,000. Fruit and vegetable wholesaler Fisher & Woods is chasing just over £13,000.
Marrfish, which supplied the restaurant with around £1,000 of fish a week is owed £10,707.
Landlord R and I Properties (Essex), run by directors are Ian Rudgeley and Robert Howe, is owed £24,000.
The Woodford opened in March 2016 with head chef Ben Murphy at the helm, later winning the Evening Standard newspaper's London Restaurant of the Year award, and gaining a positive review from the late AA Gill.
Murphy left in November last year and has taken on a new role at D&D London's Launceston Place in Kensington, London.
Woodford restaurant operator in administration >>
Ben Murphy appointed head chef at Launceston Place >>
Ben Murphy to leave the Woodford >>
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