1 week Ago By [email protected] (Helena Vesty)
A celebrity chef’s Greater Manchester restaurant chain abruptly closed owing more than half a million pounds to creditors. Simon Rimmer’s two Greens restaurants closed their doors for the final time earlier this year. The vegan and vegetarian restaurant, which opened its first venue in 1990, had been a cornerstone of the Didsbury food scene for more than 30 years and was seen as a trailblazer in vegetarian and vegan cuisine.
But in January, the TV chef announced its shock closure . That was followed by a second site in Sale closing in September just two years after opening. Now, documents filed to Companies House show that there is more than £500,000 in unpaid debt.
READ MORE: 'It's heartbreaking': Simon Rimmer opens up on closure of beloved Greens as he teases 'phenomenal' new venture An announcement following the second closure shared that the ‘business was untenable’. And a document filed to Companies House by administrator Begbies Traynor revealed the figures owed by the chain to creditors. “It is estimated that HMRC are owed a total of £458,873 comprised of unpaid VAT and PAYE,” reads the document.
“We understand that [Royal Bank of Scotland] were owed £13,164.10 at the time of the administrators’ appointment. “Trade Creditors are estimated in the sum of £75,067 with three claims totalling £1,923 received by the administrators to date.
Consumer creditors who have paid for restaurant vouchers and gift cards are estimated to be owed £35,790.” Greens in Sale shut with immediate effect in September (Image: MEN) Begbies Traynor says these lenders will remain unpaid, as there will not be enough money recovered through the administration process. The restaurant was the brainchild of the Sunday Brunch star and his business partner Simon Connolly.
Simon, who has more recently designed a new Mediterranean-inspired menu for the exclusive Hideaway bar at the Co-op Live arena, spoke to the Manchester Evening News about the loss of his first restaurant, which he revealed was 'the cornerstone' of his life. "It was heartbreaking. Just heartbreaking.
[It was] my very first restaurant. I've grown up there. I've had kids there.
I've grown from being a boy to a man, started a television career, bought my house off the back of it. Greens was the cornerstone of my life," he told the M.E.
N. "To close it was definitely the hardest decision of all of my business life. And then, finding that we couldn't sustain Sale and having to close the doors there, shutting both of them in the space of 12 months, has been heart-breaking.
"The outpouring of love and emotion from people was so humbling. Particularly with Didsbur y. We'd been there since 1990.
We always say that when we opened Greens, West Didsbury wasn't the place it is now. It was still quite rough and ready." Greens Didsbury on the night it closed in early January (Image: Kenny Brown | Manchester Evening News) Rimmer said that the shock closure of Greens was a fitting example of the challenges faced by the hospitality industry.
More recently, café Mary and Archie's, also in West Didsbury, closed its doors for the final time. "I think you only have to see, with Mary and Archie's recently shutting their doors on Burton Road, it's a tough time for hospitality. It's not poor operators that are going.
.. when you see that good operators are having to close their doors, that shows that this is a real issue with the industry," he said.
"It's not a level playing field for owners. Supermarkets pay 10 per cent VAT on their booze, but we pay 20 per cent. So the gap between what we have to charge to sell a glass of wine to what you can get a bottle for in the shops gets bigger and bigger.
And as money is tight, you think, can I afford to go out?" Rimmer is still involved with Mission Mars - who own the likes of Albert Schloss and Rudy's..
