Cevat Riza has bought the assets of Seymour Valentine from the administrator, which include the company’s contracts.
There are times in this game when you’re damned if you do, and damned if you don’t. This is one of those times – for every call we get asking us to keep mum, there’s another asking why we’re ignoring the facts – but there’s no hiding from the truth: Seymour Valentine has gone into administration, leaving eighty creditors out of pocket to the tune of £349,131.69 and now, the sole owner of the distressed business has been able to purchase its assets and, effectively, start again with a clean slate.
It’s a grim reality; a scenario that has left the entire vending industry reeling and a lot of people very angry indeed.
At Planet Vending, we were among the first to hear the news about Seymour Valentine, but we were asked not to report it. Cevat was said to be ‘working non-stop’ in an attempt to resolve the situation and find a way to repay the debts. We agreed to hold off, not least because we were ourselves faced with waving goodbye to a four-figure sum – a big number for us to lose – but most of all, because we had a long relationship with Cevat. We’ve done a lot of work for him over the years and we’ve enjoyed many meals and drinks together. He’s great company, we like him a lot.
When we took our first contract with Seymour Valentine we were warned that they were ‘not great payers’. In fact, one insider who knows the company better than most said that the company has ‘a Mediterranean approach to paying its bills’.
So, Seymour Valentine’s card was marked for us. Another former supplier told me, ‘you always have to chase them, but you always get paid in the end.’
Not this time…
The situation reminds me of the old adage that sometimes, ‘you have to be cruel to be kind’. As the overdue payments mounted up, you can imagine that some suppliers were pleaded with to extend the line of credit, so that Seymour Valentine could battle its way out of trouble. We understand that several suppliers agreed to put themselves out on a limb in a bid to help, allowing the company to exceed its credit limit and leaving themselves at risk as a consequence. They’re now dealing with those consequences. We understand that it was HMRC that pulled the plug, because of unpaid VAT.
It’s the downside of being part of an industry in which everybody knows everybody else: looking down the list of people who have lost out – and they are people, at the end of the day, not companies – I recognise many names that, along with us, had returned to Cevat’s Zebrano’s venue after various AVA Christmas ‘dos’ to keep the party going…
What’s riled people most is the fact that Cevat has been able to buy the assets of the company from the administrator.
‘It’s a real shame that we’ve lost such a character from vending.’
A well known face in vending says ‘it’s a real shame that we’ve lost such a character from vending, but his credibility has been damaged now. He should have just put his hands up and admitted he was going down and not spun stories around the industry.’
It’s not for me to cast aspersions. God knows I’ve been on sticky wickets of my own in the past. However, the events of the past few weeks have been so seismic in their aftershocks that it would be unrealistic to pretend it isn’t happening. Let’s hope that those who have been hit, including one company that’s staring at a £68k sized abyss, will somehow be recompensed.
Having taken the temperature of the industry, it’s hard to see how Seymour Valentine Mark 2, which will be called Seymour Valentine Cafe, could resume in the vending business and if that’s the case, repaying those who have lost out is going to very, very difficult indeed.
Who knows what will happen next. Got a crystal ball?
Read Planet Vending, HERE
