Soup Works in adminstration

Soup Works and Fresh Works, the soup bar and soup/pasta wholesaler created by restaurateur Bruce Isaacs, is seeking a new buyer after calling in the administrators last Friday. Shares in the Ofex-listed company, which was launched in June 1998, have been suspended. They closed at 2.5p each (down from the launch price of 10p), valuing the company at £510,000. The company, which supported 50 staff, comprised four London soup bars and, for the past year, a fresh soup and pasta factory in Croydon, Surrey. Administrator Malcolm Fillmore, of accountants Benedict Mackenzie, said the chain had suffered trading losses since its launch and had failed to reach its planned critical mass of eight West End outlets. Company cashflow was also hit by the substantial write-off of its investment in Isaac's Luna Nuova pizza restaurant in Covent Garden, which closed in April after abortive attempts to sell it for over a year. Isaacs said a new round of financing had fallen through when the bank involved had "changed the terms to the point that we could not meet what they wanted." The poorly-performing Moor Street Soup Works has closed, but those in Soho, Covent Garden and Goodge Street continue to trade. The group needed funding to upgrade facilities at its Croydon factory, which sells soup to Caffe Nero and other coffee outlets, and pasta to branded coffee shops, restaurants and airline caterers including British Airways. Trade had started to pick up in the soup bars, but Fillmore said it was seen as a seasonal business. "Like a lot of concepts from North America, it takes a while for people to get wise to them and go there," added Fillmore. He said there was substantial interest from both soup and non-soup operators, and that he hoped to sell the business singly, or in parts, as a going concern within the next two weeks.