Packing up after an administration

London Town's recent administration prompted yet more controversy surrounding the practice of pre-packs.

One view is that all but the biggest creditors are left with nothing. Another is that people connected with the company walk away with the best bits of a business, leaving suppliers with little, if anything, to recover.

The idea that those individuals who have seemingly presided over a company's demise only to pick up the 'choicest' assets 'for a song' following a pre-pack deal tends to vex people. The law, they believe, should be changed to prevent such fleecing happening.

The law - or at least the rules - relating to pre-packs did change a while back, in order to make the process more transparent. Transparency is key to the process, as PricewaterhouseCoopers' David Chubb - London Town's administrator - makes clear elsewhere on this website (see the property section).

Pre-packs, says Chubb, are neither good nor bad; they are just often the best route forward for a company and its staff.

You might argue such individuals could hardly be expected to say anything else, and that smaller, unsecured creditors are right-royally shafted when such deals are done, seemingly behind closed doors.

I guess, however professional the experts' approach is, suspicion is understandable.

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So, farewell Steve Thomas. Every industry has its characters, and the founder - and soon-to-retire chief executive - of nightclub group Luminar was one of those.

His was certainly a robust contribution to the hospitality industry. Luminar wasn't everyone's cup of tea, but Thomas knew what young people wanted from a night out: a few drinks, some fun and, as he once said to me, "to get laid". It will be interesting to see what Simon Douglas, the ex-HMV/Virgin Retail/Zavvi boss filling Thomas's shoes, does with the group…