In-administration Burger King franchisees owe £20m
Unsecured creditors are owed £20m after two Burger King franchisees went into administration.
Millcliffe and CPL Foods, which operate 36 Burger King outlets around the UK, entered administration on 7 April.
Documents lodged in Companies House show that they owe unsecured creditors £9.8 and £9.7m respectively.
The businesses, whose headquarters are based in Ipswich, trade under Burger King but also El Taco Loco, Real Cafe, Pizza Neo and Roosters and employ 868 members of staff. There are also new 16 sites in various stages of construction.
The administrators Nick Cropper, Ryan Grant and Catherine Williamson of AlixPartners were appointed when the two businesses experienced cash flow pressure following "rapid expansion from 2013 to 2016 and the number of restaurants in the portfolio of both companies rose rapidly as new sites were sourced and developed for restaurant openings".
The pressures on the companies came when the development of the sites were delayed, which left Millcliffe and CPL Foods with the costs of the sites but no income.
CPL Foods was founded in 2009. Millcliffe followed in 2012 as "a vehicle to undertake future growth and expansion as the companies sought to increase their geographical spread of take-away and restaurant offerings."
AlixPartners said that all of the outlets will stay open while they assess "all possible options for a sale of all or parts of the business."
Allied Irish Banks (AIB) has provided £9.7m to AlixPartners to help stabilise the operational sites.
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