Restaurants and pubs are likely to pay late

Restaurants and pubs fall way below the industry average number of days to settle their bills, according to a survey by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB).

Its retail section listing 106 firms included more than 20 restaurant, pub and contract catering outfits. Fourteen fell outside the 46-day average and the Restaurant Partnership emerged as the section's second-slowest payer, at 136 days.

Of 15 hotel groups among the 408 firms listed under services, only five were worse thanaverage. Brooks Hotels and Ashford International Hotel were seen as the tardiest hotels, in positions 338 and 339, taking 61 days to settle against a sector low of 226 days.

Roy Ackerman, whose Restaurant Partnership owns the Simply Nico and Nico Central restaurant brands, said the figures were distorted by the inclusion of a complex £900,000 sale and leaseback transaction. The firm claimed its payback arrangements for day-to-day suppliers ranged from 30 to 90 days, and that it settled invoices within 45-60 days.

And Mervyn Humphries, finance director at Sevenoaks-based Brook Hotels, felt the inclusion of a property refurbishment contract gave a misleading picture of Brook's payment practices. He claimed the company handled invoices on a monthly basis and generally paid them within 45 days.

The new list follows Government moves to clamp-down on late payments, believed to be responsible for one-quarter of the UK's 40,000 annual business failures. But the FSB said only 2,537 of the 10,000 larger companies required to show average payment periods in their annual accounts had done so. by Angela Frewin

TABLE: Average number

of days to pay

The Restaurant Partnership 136

Christopher's American Grill 85

Unchained Growth Pubs 80

Regent Inns 80

Aberdeen Steak Houses 77

Moving Image Rest 76

Coffee Republic 68

Brian Smith Plc 65

Old English Pub Co 61

Brook Hotels 61

Ashford International Hotel 61