Empire ‘has no funds’ to settle debts

The former employees of Empire are to get absolutely nothing for the two months of unpaid loyalty they worked for the firm prior to its collapse.

Administrator KPMG told MCV this afternoon that ‘unfortunately, the Company is not in a position to make any payments for arrears of wages to ex-employees of Empire’.

Instead, employees will have to file a claim for arrears and unpaid salaries and holiday.

But as it looks unlikely any creditors at all will receive funds owed by Empire, it’s improbable that staff will get anything.

KPMG says that there will most likely not be a meeting of creditors as "there is not likely to be any funds available for distribution".

Empire went into administration last week, as we revealed yesterday.

The full statement from KPMG’s restructuring director Ian Corfield read: "Unfortunately, the Company is not in a position to make any payments for arrears of wages to ex-employees of Empire.

"The Administrators will provide assistance to former employees in processing their claims with the Insolvency Service’s Redundancy Payments division to ensure the employees’ issues are dealt with as quickly as possible, Ex-employees can claim for arrears (up to a maximum of 8 weeks), holiday and occupational pension arrears. The balance of their claim after this will be a claim against the company in administration.

"It is unlikely that the Administrators will convene a meeting of creditors on the basis that there is not likely to be any funds available for distribution to the general body of creditors."