No final pay packet for staff of collapsed Patisserie Valerie chain

PATISSERIE Valerie staff who lost their jobs have not been paid for their final month’s work, it has been reported.

KPMG, joint administrators of Hall Green-based Patisserie Holdings, which has brands including Patisserie Valerie, Druckers Vienna Patisserie, Baker & Spice Flour Power City Bakery and Philpotts, confirmed 71 of its lossmaking stores have closed with immediate effect.

These include five Midlands Druckers – in Birmingham at upper Mall West and Great Western Arcade, at Solihull in Jubilee Walk, in Redditch at Kingfisher Walk and in Tamworth’s Ankerside Centre. The closures have resulted in 920 redundancies.

One employee said: “I was expecting a bonus as well. I wasn’t paid my [October] bonus either, but received an email stating we would be back-paid.

“Now we’ve left the company, every store manager who met their targets is missing two months’ bonus.

“We’ve just lost that money.”

A spokesperson for KPMG said it was providing staff with “support, including assisting with claims to the Redundancy Payments Service.”

The move followed a ‘significant fraud’ uncovered in October leading to a black hole in its accounts, which it said was caused by ‘potentially fraudulent accounting irregularities’ which led to a misstatement of the company’s accounts.

However, Birmingham’s Philpotts sandwich outlets and Sutton Coldfield’s Patisserie Valerie cafe remain open. In total 27 Patisserie Valerie stores and 19 Druckers stores have shut, along with 25 Patisserie Valerie concessions in Debenhams, Next and at motorway service areas.

KPMG said it and its team “continue to provide all necessary support and assistance to those employees who have lost their jobs, including providing them with the information needed to apply for monies owed from the Redundancy Payments Service.”