The corporate recovery experts who rescued a fishing retail chain, saving the entire workforce of 111 jobs, have instructed CAPA to audit stores across the business.
CAPA will be conducting full property audits on around 16 sites at Fishing Republic, after advisers from Leonard Curtis Business Rescue & Recovery managed to sell the struggling business in an 11th-hour rescue deal.
Based in Rotherham with stores around the country, Fishing Republic is one of Britain’s largest retailers of fishing equipment.
In the lead up to its insolvency, Fishing Republic had endured severe financial difficulties after major investors had withdrawn short-term financial support for the company. This left the business unable to meet working capital requirements.
Andrew Poxon and Julien Irving from Leonard Curtis were later appointed as administrators to the business on December 20. Immediately upon their appointment, they completed the sale of the company to an unconnected third party. The deal, which preserved 111 employees’ jobs and kept 14 stores open for trading, was secured through a pre-pack administration after a period of marketing.
Leonard Curtis has now appointed CAPA to conduct the full property audits on each site, meaning its Audit team will use bespoke software to carry out a forensic analysis of utility bills, service charges and rates paid out at each location. The team will look to uncover multiple elements such as errors or anomalies in the costs, before recovering the sums for Fishing Republic’s creditors.
The team will also inspect data on invoices paid out at each site, to discover any further ‘overspend’ which can also be recovered for creditors.
