Wed 24th Jul 2019 - Taylor St Baristas appoints administrators Taylor St Baristas appoints administrators: Taylor St Baristas has appointed administrators to support the restructure – and potential sale – of its coffee business, Propel has learned. The business, founded in 2006 by siblings Andrew, Laura and Nick Tolley, was one of London’s first speciality coffee houses. Between 2012 and 2015, Taylor St Baristas partnered with Tesco to develop and operate the Harris + Hoole chain of speciality coffee shops, launching more than 50 sites in three years before selling its share to the supermarket company. More recently the business commenced a shift in strategy away from owning and operating cafes, focusing instead on the development of its partnership and wholesale businesses, working with large multinational clients and local specialist operators to grow their speciality coffee programmes. As part of this strategy, the business recently undertook the sale of eight of its cafes – along with a licence to operate the cafes under the Taylor St brand – to Black Sheep Coffee. However, following a strategic review of Taylor St Baristas’ finances, the directors have concluded the highly leveraged capital structure of the business is no longer sustainable and have appointed Asher Miller and Henry Lan, of David Rubin & Partners, as administrators. Propel understands the Taylor St Baristas cafes will continue to trade, including the ones licensed by Black Sheep, along with the rest of the business. Coffee will continue to be sourced and roasted by the company and baristas will continue to be trained by the firm. Nick Tolley said: “Sadly, Taylor St Baristas is carrying too much debt, which has affected our ability to raise new capital to support the ongoing development of the business. While the underlying fundamentals of the business remain strong – and our customers and wholesale clients continue to love and engage with the brand – we’ve simply been unable to overcome a balance sheet that’s carrying too much debt. As founders we’ll do everything we can to support Taylor St Baristas’ licensees and partners and ensure there is no interruption to our customers and people during this administration process.” Taylor St Baristas is understood to have pulled its crowdfunding campaign on Crowdcube once it understood the business’ prospects were “materially different to those presented in its investment material”.