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.
The instruction will involve CAPA undertaking a forensic analysis of data on invoices owed to East by clients across the store portfolio. The team will use bespoke software to inspect the information and uncover errors or any anomalies, that enables them to recover cash for East’s creditors.
CAPA’s auditors will also forensically examine the rates paid out across the retail outlets, to discover any overspend which can be clawed back to generate further sums for creditors.
The instruction is one of many others given to CAPA to recover cash for creditors of retailers. The team has undertaken audits of sites operated by 99p Stores, Agent Provocateur, American Apparel and Austin Reed, among others.
