Luxury Devon food business now in administration with whopping debts

Eversfield Organic on The Plains in Totnes has closed its doors for good
The Eversfield Organic store on The Plains in Totnes closed in 2023 -Credit:Submitted


The founder of high-end Devon food company Eversfield Organic Ltd has vowed to bounce back after the company fell into administration with debts of nearly £7m. The Okehampton-based business, which sold produce in London’s upmarket Selfridges, fell into severe financial difficulties and blamed post-Covid changes to shopping habits, which made its stores in Totnes, Tavistock and Marlborough in Wiltshire unsustainable, with all now closed. An ongoing dispute with another company, itself now in administration, has complicated matters too.

Administrators at accounting consultants Mazars this week published their proposals and said it is not feasible to rescue Eversfield Organic as a going concern. Documents filed at Companies House revealed debts of nearly £7m.

Mark Bury, founder of Eversfield Organic, called the company’s demise “a tragedy”. He said: “It’s a sad, horrible story, and bruising when you have lost something you have spent 20 years to build.”

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Mr Bury is now a director of two entirely new and unrelated companies: Soil and Sea Hospitality Ltd, which has reopened the 17th Century Dartmoor Inn at Merrivale and is looking to open another pub/restaurant in a coastal location; and Soil and Sea Online Ltd, which is working with companies such as Wright Brothers, in Brixham, and Plymouth ’s Sole of Discretion to boost online trade. He said: “We are trying to recover our position from pretty well losing everything.”

Eversfield Organic began trading in 2003, and sold fresh produce and meat online and via its three shops and two pubs/restaurants: The Dartmoor Inn and North Bovey’s The Ring of Bells. It also sold produce at fish and meat concessions at Selfridges and in 2021 opened a distribution centre at Wincanton.

At its peak, in 2021, the company had a turnover of £8.3m as the coronavirus >Covid pandemic drove customers to its shops and online sales. But, documents filed at Companies House, said Eversfield Organic lost two large business accounts with online grocery firm Ocado and food delivery business Abel & Cole in 2022. As these generated £2.3m in sales that year the loss had “a material adverse effect on turnover”.

The administrators’ proposals document said the company had been lossmaking, with losses of £536,000 in 2022 and £1.6m in 2023. The report said: “By the summer of 2023 the financial position of the company became critical.”

The sale of the business was advised and heads of terms were drawn up between Eversfield Organic and Weston-super-Mare-based meat and produce trader Kimbardel, with 94 staff transferring in October last year. Kimbardel then closed the pubs and the Tavistock shop. However a legal dispute arose between the two companies over payments and Kimbardel’s use of Eversfield Organics’ former HQ at Okehampton.

Kimbardel (Eversfield) Ltd, a company set up in September 2023, then went into administration in February this year. The issue of whether a sale was made to Kinbardel is still the subject of legal dispute.

Administrators for Eversfield Organics said HSBC has a debenture over the company’s assets, with the bank claiming more than £2m, and 22 employees made redundant in September 2023 are claiming £3,000. They said HM Revenue and Customs has submitted a claim for £510,401 and that unsecured creditors are asking for a combined £.4.781m.

The document said: “There is a prospect of an amount being paid to HSBC, under its fixed charge security, but any payment to preferred creditors out of the estate is considered uncertain at this stage.” It also said: “We do not consider that there will be a recovery from the estate to unsecured creditors.”

Kimbardel (Eversfield) Ltd’s statement of affairs predicts its creditors will be left short of £426,000. However, administrators are attempting to rescue the company as a going concern.

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