Harris Lipman News

Les Routiers in liquidation

16/01/2007

Martin Atkins of London based chartered accountants and licensed insolvency practitioners Harris Lipman LLP has been appointed as liquidator of Les Routiers.

The hospitality guide book specialist was placed into liquidation on January 12th 2007 and has been purchased by leading UK purchasing consortium ipa Group Limited.

ipa Group Limited has been associated with Les Routiers for a number of years as their official purchasing organisation, providing a very valuable and important service to all Les Routiers members.

Bob Payne, chairman of ipa Group comments: "When Routiers UK went into voluntary liquidation we were saddened at the apparent demise of the company and concerned at the potential damage that would be done to members and indeed to what is generally considered to be one of the icons in the hospitality guide book industry here in the UK. As a result, ipa made formal representations to the former director to see if a rescue package could be put together. Unfortunately this proved not to be the case and we then offered to buy all the assets within the company and to mount a rescue package to save the guide and rebuild the business.

"We believe that Les Routiers UK has to some degree been through difficult times in recent years, but it has the respect of many of the older generation of people within this country, many of whom have enjoyed and wondered at the quality the brand holds throughout France. As a result, we at ipa Group Limited are developing a completely new business model which hopefully will transform the guide and the brand in the UK. To demonstrate our commitment, we have now published next year’s guide in its entirety and are now setting out on a major initiative to regain ground lost during the last few months whilst the company was in voluntary liquidation. We will be contacting all the members to encourage and reassure them that the company is in good hands and together we will build the brand into a major icon once again."

Martin Atkins comments: "Despite the sad news of the liquidation, we are delighted to have found a buyer so quickly for this well known brand and we wish the new team every success."

 

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