Prescott and Conran owed £14m when it collapsed

By Sophie Witts

- Last updated on GMT

Prescott & Conran ran Parabola at Kensington's Design Museum
Prescott & Conran ran Parabola at Kensington's Design Museum
Sir Terence Conran’s restaurant group collapsed owing £14m to creditors, documents show.

Prescott and Conran fell in to administration in June​ with the closure of its London restaurants Lutyens, Albion and Parabola. Its French brasserie Les Deux Salons and Albion at Neo Bankside have also shut their doors.

Filings from administrators Duff & Phelps show the five businesses recorded pre-tax losses of up to £345,000 in the five months to 31 May 2018.

Prescott and Conran also owed millions to creditors including food and drink suppliers and HM Revenue and Customs.

The report says at the time of the collapse the company had “insufficient working capital” to continue to trade, despite Conran lending the business more than £22m.

Seventy members of staff have lost their jobs with the group's collapse.

Conran purchased The Boundary Hotel in Shoreditch – which is home to Stephane Reynaud’s Tratra restaurant​ – out of administration for £500,000.

“In common with a number of restaurant businesses, the Companies had encountered continuing difficult trading conditions incurring significant trading losses which were then having to be funded by the shareholders and Boundary,” the administrators’ report says.

“Despite management’s strong focus on operational turnover and a number of injections of funding by Sir Terence Conran, Lady Victoria Conran and Edmund Conran, the loss-making companies remained unviable.”

The Searcys restaurant group has now taken over the catering​ at the Design Museum in Kensington after the closure of Parabola.

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