Patisserie Valerie warns of possible collapse

High street bakery Patisserie Valerie has warned that it could be forced to close unless it receives an “immediate injection of capital”.

This news comes just a day after it temporarily suspended trading and suspended its CFO Chris Marsh from his role while it investigated “potentially fraudulent” accounts. The company later revealed it had discovered an unpaid tax bill of £1.14m and had received a winding up order from HMRC.

Patisserie Valerie has 206 stores across the UK and employs 2,500 people.

The company released a statement which said: “Patisserie Holdings plc announces that the company, in conjunction with its professional advisers, has during the last 24 hours, undertaken further investigation into the financial status of the company. The board has now reached the conclusion that there is a material shortfall between the reported financial status and the current financial status of the business.

“Without an immediate injection of capital, the directors are of the view that that is no scope for the business to continue trading in its current form. As a consequence, the directors and the company’s professional advisers are assessing all options available to the business to keep it trading and will update the market in due course.”