Thu 14th Sep 2017 - Administrator – 20 trading Handmade Burger Co sites were sold for £1.45m Administrator – 20 trading Handmade Burger Co sites were sold for £1.45m: The 20 trading Handmade Burger Company sites were sold in July by its administrator to an unconnected third party, The Burger Chain, for a total of £1,457,940, a report at Companies House show – the administrator had closed nine sites at the point of administration. A report by the administrator filed at Companies House states there had been an attempt to set up a Creditors Voluntary Arrangement but it became apparent the company was not generating the level of profit needed to make CVA payments. A sale process generated interest from 36 parties with seven offers subsequently received and a sale contract issued to two parties. Accounts show Handmade Burger Company, made up of two legal entities, The Sargeant Partnership and Hand Made Burger Co, turned over £8,013,000 in the four months to 30 April 2017, but lost £386,000 – head office costs were £549,000 in that period. The 13 sites trading in the Sargeant Partnership vehicle were sold for £1,110,345 and the remaining restaurants, contained within the Hand Made Burger Co vehicle, were sold for £357,595. Explaining the reasons for the company’s collapse, the administrators report states: “At the start of 2016, the company began to experience challenges with new competitors entering the market, particularly with the opening of rival restaurants in the same locations as the company and large sporting events affecting sales patterns. During 2016 and early 2017, the company opened several new restaurants in order to mitigate the threat of rival restaurant openings. However, the new restaurant have not delivered the return the directors had initially anticipated with sales targets affected by hot weather and, more recently, the increased terror threat level in the UK.” The company was founded by Chris, Matthew and Richard Sargeant and opened its first restaurant in Brindley Place, Birmingham in 2006. The combined turnovers of the two legal entities for the most recent full year, to 31 December 2016, show turnover of £26,219,000 and profit before tax of £92,000. Unsecured creditors of the Sargeant Partnership are owed £10,627,431 and Hand Made Burger Co unsecured creditors are owed £3,334,853 – the administrator states there may be a distribution to them. The balance due to the Sargeant Partnership in respect of the directors’ overdrawn loan account is estimated to total £1,055,000.