Published Articles

Sydney Mitchell has been appointed by the administrators of First Quench Retailing Limited to deal with the disposal of properties nationwide.

First Quench, which operated a number of well-known off-licence brands, including Threshers and Wine Rack, went into administration in October 2009. Richard Fleming, Mick McLoughlin and Ian Corfield of KPMG, the appointed administrators, subsequently instructed Sydney Mitchell as one of only two firms to deal with the sale of the First Quench portfolio.

In an environment of rising taxes, knowing what you can do to protect your assets for your family’s future is essential. One way of doing this is to set up a trust, but what is a trust?

A trust arises where assets are transferred by one party ("the settlor") to other individuals ("the trustees") to hold for the benefit of others ("the beneficiaries"). The trustees owe a duty of care to the beneficiaries when managing the trust assets.

Sydney Mitchell has helped save 120 jobs by finalising the acquisition of two casinos in the region.

The Castle casino in Wolverhampton and the Rubicon in Dudley both went into administration in March of this year. With the assistance of Sydney Mitchell both have now been acquired by casino chain Casino 36.

Casino 36, which currently has a casino in the North West of England, has been looking to expand by acquiring new sites. With the appropriate expertise in order to manage the two casinos, the take over made perfect sense.

Despite talk of 'green shoots' of economic recovery and an improving market, the Insolvency team at Sydney Mitchell are expecting a rise in Insolvency cases heading their way.

Already insolvency statistics show that there is a 39.1% increase from last year in company insolvency's. This includes administrations, compulsory liquidations and creditors voluntary liquidations. Individual insolvency's are also on the increase with a rise of 27.4% from last year. This figure includes bankruptcies, IVAs (Individual Voluntary Arrangements) and DROs (Debt Relief Orders).