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There’s no dough to reopen six former Coughlans bread shops

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EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES

Closed shop: the Coughlans on High Street Croydon is one of the six that will not be reopening

At least six former branches of Coughlans, the bakers business which wasn’t making enough dough and went into voluntary liquidation earlier this summer, will not be re-opening under the branding of the Gloucestershire-based business that acquired the chain of shops last month.

Documents filed at Companies House show that the appointed liquidators, Bailey Ahmed Ltd, have officially “disclaimed” the company’s interests in the leasehold of six Coughlans branches, three of which are in Croydon and Sutton.

The bakers’ shops where the leases are effectively being abandoned are:

At the time of the announcement on June 30 that Coughlans’ directors were putting the business into voluntary liquidation, there were 175 full- and part-time employees at Coughlans, which had a bakery in Thornton Heath and 31 branches across south London, Surrey, Kent and Sussex.

Goodbye note: the Coughlans shop closures was very sudden

Those staff discovered that they were being made redundant with immediate effect by text message on July 1.

It has been stated by the liquidators that former Coughlans staff will be able to re-apply for their old jobs with new owners Janes.

Coughlans was a family-run business which first traded in 1937 from a corner shop near Croydon’s Mayday Hospital. As Inside Croydon first reported, the closure was announced by Sean Coughlan, the third generation to run the business, who blamed all kinds of external reasons for the businesss’s closure.

The Janes takeover does not include the Coughlan bakery site in Thornton Heath, as that was among £9million-worth of property, assets and cash which, according to the company’s own records, had been transferred out of the business since 20223 to Smitham Lodge Estates Ltd. Smitham Lodge Estates Ltd is a separate business entity established by Sean Coughlan, his sister Virginia Coughlan and Jacqueline Taylor. All three were also directors of the Coughlans bakery business.

Now the joint liquidators, Paul Bailey and Kirren Keegan, have clarified which stores will not be trading under the Janes Pantry brand following their purchase of “the majority of the company’s business and certain assets”.

When announcing the sale last month, the liquidators said that “the reopening of 25 former stores represents a positive outcome for local high streets, with the potential to create a substantial number of employment opportunities as the sites return to trading under new ownership”.

The six “Notice to Registrar of Companies of Notice of disclaimer” were filed at Companies House on September 3. They are all pretty much the sane, apart from the address and postcode of each shop.

Under Section 178 of the Insolvency Act 1986, when a liquidator “disclaims an interest” in a lease, it means they are formally walking away from a property, to avoid the insolvent company’s estate from losing any money on ongoing rent and maintenance.

The liquidated company is freed from future rent and obligations as of the disclaimer date. Their erstwhile landlord can file a claim for damages during the liquidation process.

There has been no announcement from the liquidators or Janes when the remaining 25 shops might be expected to reopen. The liquidators had not responded to Inside Croydon’s request for information at the time of publication.

Read more: Coughlan’s directors moved £9m out of bakery firm since 2023
Read more: Croydon bakers firm Coughlan’s closes blaming Labour NI hike

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