Ronay publisher needs new home

Leading Guides International, producer of the Egon Ronay guides to hotels and restaurants, suffered a fresh blow last week when it was turfed out of its London offices.

Bailiffs acting for the landlord of the building at 77 St John Street, Clerkenwell, seized the premises last Tuesday. The move follows the collapse at the end of July of Richbell Strategic Holdings, of which city tycoon David Elias is a director. Elias is also a director of Leading Guides International.

Richbell Strategic held the main lease on the building and sublet it to various businesses, including Leading Guides International.

Leading Guides communications director Phillip Atkinson, speaking on the steps of the building, claimed it would be "business as usual" for the Egon Ronay titles. They were moving to new offices, he added, the address of which is still to be announced.

And Atkinson dismissed concerns about the publication timetable for the guides. "They will still come out before Christmas," he claimed. The concerns followed a strike by the guides' part-time inspectors, who say they have still not been paid.

Egon Ronay, who resigned as a consultant to the titles in June, is also taking action in the High Court to wind up Leading Guides International. A ruling was imminent as Caterer went to press.

Richbell Strategic was forced into liquidation after a dispute with petrol card firm Harpur. A High Court judge decided it had to pay Harpur £2.2m.