A bakery chain with eight outlets throughout Northern Ireland has announced it will be closing due to "immediate pressures" on business.
In an email issued to staff by a third party insolvency agency on behalf of the company directors on the evening of Thursday, September 1, The Cookie Box announced they will be closing all of their outlets with immediate effect.
The email, which has been seen by Belfast Live, added: "I apologise for the timing of this email, however given the immediate pressures, the position has become unmanageable."
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A member of staff at one of The Cookie Box's outlets said there were concerns around pay, alleging staff had not heard any further information.
They said: "Staff have not received their pay for this month after getting a payslip." They also alleged they had been given no information about whether they were going to get any of the money they worked for.
They added: "Forty or more young adults and adult employees have been abandoned and left astray with no income, when bills have to be paid in the cost of living crisis, many of them students and mothers whose only source of income was Cookie Box."
The message was sent the same day as the Patisserie Valerie bakery chain closed its three shops in Belfast, citing “unprecedented challenges”.
The Cookie Box was started by husband and wife Brian and Claire McRandal in 2008. The business came under the ownership of Craig and Valerie Holmes in October 2018. Mr Holmes is a director of Belfast-based corporate finance firm HNH Capital Partners Limited.
The business specialising in cookies and milkshakes started as a single outlet on Ann Street in Belfast in 2008. Under new ownership, it had expanded in recent years, growing to eight outlets in Belfast, Lisburn, Portrush, and Ballymena.
In the past year, the company had opened new outlets in Ballymena, Ballyhackamore and in Belfast’s Great Northern Mall.
The Cookie Box has been approached for comment.
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