Oddbins creditors to get just 6p in the pound

Oddbins’ creditors are likely to end up with just 6p in the pound, according to the failed off-licence chain’s administrator.

Debts of £25 million at the 128-strong chain forced it into administration in April, as HM Revenue & Customs turned down a rescue deal that would have seen creditors paid 21p in the pound and was supported by 84% of creditors, though the Revenue’s rejection was enough to see the effort fail.

The situation was laid out in a statement of affairs filed by administrator Lee Manning of Deloitte.

A £17.7m loan from Ex Cellar Investments, a business run by Oddbins’ management, which was used to buy Oddbins, has effectively been written off as the enterprise value of the chain has collapsed.

Owner Simon Baile, whose father founded Oddbins in the Seventies, recently bought back five former Oddbins shops from Deloitte and plans to offer goods such as charcuterie and cheese in the new stores under the Ex Cellar name.

News of Baile’s move was greeted with fury on internet chat rooms among the approximately 400 staff made redundant as a result of the chain’s collapse.

Alan Lodge, 01.06.2011