Last minute buy-out of six Oliver Adams shops - Northampton staff unsure of their futures

Oliver Adams - based in Gladstone Road - ceased trading on Friday. But it is understood six of its outlets have been bought out by an Ely-based firm.

Shoppers were surprised to see the express outlet in Mercer's Row open this morning only two days after news broke the whole chain had gone under and 150 employees had been made redundant.

Staff at an Oliver Adams outlet in Leighton Buzzard claim to have been informed their shop, as well as five other Oliver Adams shops, have been taken over by a company called Bakery Organic based in Ely, Cambridgeshire.

The move, one employee told the Chron, has saved eight jobs at the Leighton Buzzard outlet alone and that shop would soon change branding over to Bakery Organic.

However, staff at the Northampton outlet today said they were not sure of their future but were taking each day as it comes.

Bakery Organic, which appears to have been incorporated in 2008 by Martin Boden, has been contacted for a comment.

Also today, insolvency practitioners have conformed 150 Oliver Adams staff have been made redundant after the long-running firm failed to repay its Â£1.7 million worth of debt.

Joint supervisor of the Company Voluntary Agreement, Peter Windatt, who had been working on behalf of Business Recovery and Insolvency (BRI) in Northampton to save the firm from going under, said: "This is a very difficult time for the Company and its employees.

"Given the appointment by the director of an alternative firm of insolvency practitioners to seek the voluntary liquidation we were only able to provide, together with the Department for Work and Pensions and its Rapid Response Team, as much support as possible to the 100 plus employees who attended a meeting held at the company’s headquarters on March 31."