An interesting piece in the Sunday Times this morning outlines what went wrong with the restaurant business owned and managed by celebrity chef Antony Worrall Thompson…

It would be interesting to get hold of the administrators report which is used as the source of the article. The article hints at several management decisions which, with the benefit of hindsight of course, caused the cash flow problems which forced the business into insolvency:

- over-ambitious expansion (e.g the purchase of a new outlet as the credit crunch began to bite)

- reduced gross profit margins (higher ingredient costs not matched by higher selling prices)

- over-staffing in some locations (higher breakeven point + lower labour productivity)