THE removal men descended on New Bond Street last week to begin the task of clearing out the stock at Partridge. By the morning of Friday, September 4, the biggest object left in the window was a large roll of bubblewrap being used to pack up the antiques for loading onto several lorries parked along the street.
Richard Merrin, spokesman for administrators MCR, who were
called in to run the business on July 20, said he had nothing to
add to his firm's original statement that they were "concentrating
on saving the business and selling the store as a going
concern".
However, at least one ATG subscriber told us that when he
visited the shop on Tuesday last week, he was informed that the
doors would be closing the following day.
Whether or not the stock has actually been sold, with the shop
being cleared out over several days, it is hard to see how it can
remain the "going concern" referred to by Mr Merrin.
Few clear details have emerged as to exactly what is happening
with Partridge, but at the end of last week, the official Registry
of County Court Judgments still listed three Unsatisfied Judgments
against the firm in England, one dating from the end of April, the
other two from June.
Together they amount to just over £320,000 in unsettled
payments.
Allied Irish Bank, who called in the Receivers, rebuffed claims
by former chairman Mark Law that they had acted unfairly,
dismissing his assertion in ATG No 1901, August 8, that he was
given only 90 minutes notice of their move, and that the firm was
in a healthy state as "simply not true".
By Ivan Macquisten
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