Kings Mall Patisserie Valerie is Back in Business
Cafe reopens following chairman's £20 million rescue plan
King Street shoppers have been delighted to find that the Kings Mall branch of Patisserie Valerie has reopened.
The cafe was abruptly closed on 12 October amid a financial scandal which brought the chain to the brink of collapse. At the time, a notice on the door said that the landlord, MP Kings Retail SARL has forfeited the lease for non-payment of rent.
This week however, it was back open to hungry shoppers following a rescue plan by entrepreneur Luke Johnson, who is chairman of Patisserie Valerie and its largest shareholder with a 37% stake.
He injected an emergency loan of £20 million to keep the chain's parent company, Patisserie Holdings, from being wound-up.
Shareholders in the company also backed a plan to issue £15 million of new shares, though many were unhappy that the new shares were being offered at a knock-down price.
Mr Johnson has since waived his £60,000 salary from the company and stepped down from some of his numerous other roles. Before the scandal broke, he sat on the board of at least 17 operating companies, and chaired more than half of them.
The scandal first broke early in October when the company admitted it had uncovered "significant, and potentially fraudulent, accounting irregularities".
The company's finance chief Chris Marsh was subsequently suspended before being arrested by police and then released on bail. A criminal investigation is now underway along with an internal investigation led by Mr Johnson.
The first Patisserie Valerie café was opened on Soho's Frith Street in 1926 by Belgian-born Madame Valerie. It was destroyed in World War II and a new site opened at nearby Old Compton Street.
Now it has 206 cafes across the country, employing around 2,000 staff.
Hammersmith's cafe, in Unit 27, Kings Mall, facing King Street is open from 8am till 8pm Monday to Friday, 8.30am till 8pm on Saturday and 9am till 7pm on Sunday.
Find out more here.
November 9, 2018
October 12, 2018
