The administrators of AMT Coffee who saved around 200 jobs at the chain by selling many of its outlets out of insolvency have appointed CAPA to conduct audits on the business.
Interpath Advisory has appointed CAPA to conduct rates audits after the business recovery firm secured an 11th hour rescue of more than half the sites AMT Coffee traded from, by selling them out of administration and safeguarding jobs in the process.
Operating since 1993, AMT had 43 leasehold sites mainly located in railway stations, hospitals and airports around the UK and Ireland.
The company’s trading performance had been significantly disrupted first by the impact of the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns through 2020 and 2021, and later by a high-inflation trading environment.
A combination of economic factors and Covid-19 left the chain in a loss-making position for several years.
The directors had been implementing a turnaround plan, which involved repositioning the brand, improving the quality of sites and enhancing its offering, but the business continued to suffer cashflow issues when it lost key sites and saw revenue drop due to a decrease in commuter volumes.
Ultimately, Will Wright and Nick Holloway of Interpath Advisory were appointed joint administrators on 18 November last year.
Upon their appointment, the administrators managed to secure a sale of 25 sites the business traded from via a pre-pack administration to SSP Group - an unconnected third party.
Following Interpath’s instruction, CAPA is now conducting a forensic audit of the outlets AMT occupied. This will involve the use of bespoke software to interrogate all data on rates paid to local authorities throughout the chain.
CAPA’s audit team will look to identify any errors or anomalies, before recovering any overpayments on a no-win no-fee basis.
