West Cornwall Pasty Outlets Look Set to Stay Shut

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Company fell into administration earlier this month

West Cornwall Pasty Co's kiosk in Fulham Broadway and store in Hammersmith Broadway look set to stay closed after the firm went into administration earlier this month.

A consortium of wealthy individuals, including former England footballer and Celebrity Masterchef finalist Danny Mills has since stepped in to rescue the company by buying 35 stores and outlets out of administration.

However, a spokesman for the private equity firm Enact, in which Danny Mills is a partner alongside a former HSBC banker, a senior partner at the accounting firm Deloitte and a retail entrepreneur who founded the Republic fashion chain, has confirmed that the local branches are not among the 35.

The firm says West Cornwall Pasty Company was hit by George Osborne's decision in 2013 to apply 20% VAT to all food sold “above the ambient air temperature”. Pie sellers had previously been exempt from the tax on hot takeaway food by arguing that they sold their products warm to improve their appearance or comply with health and safety legislation.

In the resulting controversy the Government was accused of being out of touch with ordinary people, prompting David Cameron to say "I love a hot pasty".

He said he had last bought one from a West Cornwall Pasty Company outlet in Leeds train station, which it emerged had closed years earlier.

Chris Cormack, Enact’s investment director, said: “The business has struggled to cope with the effects of the pasty tax and a number of underperforming outlets.”

Hammersmith and Fulham's outlets, which have been longstanding features in local stations, appears to have been among those underformers and their future not looks bleak.

Ironically, the company's collapse cam just a month after its "traditional" pasty was crowned the champion at the Eden Project's annual World Pasty Championships - otherwise known as the Oggy Olympics.

 

March 6, 2014