Caterer and Hotelkeeper – 6913
DEBTS REDUCE ZEN EMPIRE
DEBTS built up when Laurence Leung's Zen Cargo restaurant went into liquidation in 1992 appear to have played a major role in sending the four remaining Zen establishments in London into receivership last week.
Joint receiver Nigel Ruddock told Caterer the failure of Blaidwood Limited, the Zen Group holding company which owned the restaurants, had arisen because of "activities going back a number of years, which have simply not been successful". "The principle one of these appears to have been Zen Cargo," he said.
The four restaurants in receivership are Zen Chelsea, ZENW3, Now & Zen and Zen Central. Mr Ruddock, corporate recovery partner at chartered accountants Robson Rhodes, was at pains to stress they had been trading profitably, with a combined turnover of £5.35m.
He said that by the end of last week he had received some 120 enquiries to buy the restaurants, which are to be sold as a group.
Six further restaurants owned by other Zen Group companies are unaffected by the receiverships. These include the London restaurants Zoe (which opened on the site of the former Zen Cargo), Chopstix Xchange and Bonjour Vietnam, as well as two Zens in Hong Kong and one in Montreal.
Two other restaurants operate within Hilton properties, a Zen Teppanyaki at the Hilton National at East Midlands Airport, and a Zen at the Heathrow Hilton. A Hilton spokeswoman said the company's lawyers were trying to find out the position of the two restaurants in relation to the receiverships.
The Zen Group has had mixed fortunes since Mr Leung opened Zen Chelsea in 1983. Though several openings followed, in 1992 Zen Cargo went into liquidation just four months after opening, with debts of nearly £700,000.
Later that year Now & Zen went into liquidation after a £1.7m refurbishment, and its holding company, the Blaidwood Catering Company, sold it for £300,000 to Blaidwood Limited, the company now in receivership.
Mr Leung came under fire at that time for opening Bonjour Vietnam and Teppanyaki San while creditors from his other operations went unpaid.
Caterer tried to contact Mr Leung on several occasions, but he declined to comment.
