CAPA to dig up sums for national garden centre chain

CAPA has been called in for a property audit at Home & Garden, the national chain of garden centres that folded after the ‘beast from the East’ turned shoppers away.

H&G (Retail) Limited, trading as Home & Garden, entered insolvency along with its subsidiaries on March 27, when Adam Harris and Patrick Lannagan of Mazars, the international accountancy and advisory firm, were appointed as joint administrators.

Unexpected severe weather conditions at the start of the year, which worsened when the ‘beast from the east’ hit Britain throughout March, impacted the group’s cash flow during the first quarter of 2018.

After their appointment, the administrators have now instructed CAPA to conduct a full property audit across eight Home & Garden stores.

Administrators of Jamie Oliver chain call in CAPA

The administrators of Barby, the company behind Jamie Oliver’s Barbecoa restaurants, have instructed CAPA to conduct a rates, rent and service charge audit on the company’s sites in London.

Peter Saville, Kevin Coates and Catherine Williamson of the business advisory and turnaround firm AlixPartners, were appointed as joint administrators of Barby on February 19 2018. The company operates two Barbecoa branded restaurants in the Piccadilly and St Paul’s areas of London.

The administrators’ instruction means CAPA will now undertake a forensic analysis of rent payments across the two London eateries. The team will use bespoke software to inspect the data and uncover errors or any anomalies, that enable them to recover cash for Barby’s creditors.

CAPA instructed on national fashion retailer

CAPA has been instructed to undertake a rates and accounts payable audit of properties at East, the fashion retailer now in administration.

Founded in 1994, East operated from 34 shops and 15 concessions in department stores across the UK, but it entered administration in January 2018 after a challenging trading environment during the final months of 2017.

Geoff Rowley and Phil Armstrong, partners at the specialist business advisory firm FRP Advisory, were appointed as administrators on January 29 and have now instructed CAPA to conduct the audits on all 34 stores.