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Wednesday 12 August 2015

The Chelsea Food & Wine Company/Chelsea Food & Drinks Vintage Ltd – another charitable institution?

Headline details from Companies House: 
Chelsea Food & Drinks Vintage Ltd

The Chelsea Food and Wine Company Ltd 
(Companies House details)

Our story: from the website  
'in 2006 we decided ....


Address details 

Chelsea Food & Wine 
429 King's Road, London SW10 0LR
(Google maps)

Chelsea Food & Drinks Vintage Ltd (Company no: 08299431)
The Chelsea Food and Wine Company Ltd (Company no: 05729781)
Wine investor XT was cold called by The Chelsea Food & Wine Company. They offered him a very enticing deal for his portfolio. He was told that using Liv-ex figures his portfolio was worth £7425. However, Chelsea Food & Wine Company would be prepared to buy XT's portfolio for a very generous £9110. Checking on wine-searcher and using the lowest credible the lowest selling prices XT's portfolio can be bought for just £6009. Of course the price these companies would be prepared to pay to buy these wines would naturally be lower. 

So why is The Chelsea Food & Wine Company prepared to pay £3101 (34%) more for XT's portfolio than you can buy on wine-searcher? Are they a registered charity?

As far as I know neither Chelsea Food & Drinks Vintage Ltd (Company no: 08299431) nor The Chelsea Food and Wine Company Ltd (Company no: 05729781) are registered charities, although they might well consider setting up an association for distressed wine investors. 

But what is the relationship between these two companies? According to the Chelsea Food & Wine Company website (registered on 5th November 2014):  

'The Chelsea Food & Wine Company owns and operates Chelsea Food & Drink (Vintage) Ltd. 58-60 Kensington Church Street, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, W8 4DB Company Reg: 08299431 - 05729781. All rights reserved.' 

Directors of The Chelsea Food and Wine Company  Ltd
From Company Check
  
The Chelsea Food & Wine Company Ltd was set up on 3rd March 2006 with its registered office currently at 276 Preston Road, Harrow, Middlesex, United Kingdom, HA3 0QA. A number of other companies are also registered at this address. Shezad Hussain Shah (born January 1980) is the sole director – appointed 29th January 2007. Share capital is £1000 – all held by Shah. 

Directors of Chelsea Food & Drinks Vintage Ltd 
From Company Check

Although The Chelsea Food & Wine Company Ltd 'owns and operates Chelsea Food & Drinks (Vintage) Ltd' the two companies have entirely separate directors, registered offices and may have no shareholders in common. The company was incorporated on 20th November 2012. The initial director was Richard Jobling, who was also the sole shareholder (£1). The last accounts were made up to 30th November 2013 for a dormant company. Jobling resigned on 1st December 2014. 

On the same day (1.12.14) Angela Howard (DOB: September 1972), Richard Howard (DOB: October 1961), David Moore (DOB: August 1963) and Alister Morgan (DOB: February 1975) were all appointed as directors of Chelsea Food & Drinks (Vintage) Ltd. The share capital was also increased to £50. At present I don't have the shareholders' details as the annual return was made up to 20th November 2014 and is currently not available for download from Companies House.  

It seems likely that these two companies* only moved into the fine wine market after the change of directors at Chelsea Food & Drinks Vintage Ltd. It wasn't until this year that I received any enquiries about these two companies.     
To date the Chelsea Food & Drinks Vintage Ltd has no track record: the next set of accounts (up to 30th November 2014) have to be filed by 31st August 2015. It won't be until 31st August 2016 that accounts for the active company post-1st December 2014 will be published, so for the moment we do not know how Chelsea Food & Drinks Vintage Ltd can afford to be so generous with their offers to buy investors' wine portfolios. 


Unfortunately the directors appear to have misunderstood the recent Consumer Contract legislation. The 14-day period for consumers to cancel starts from the day after delivery not from 'the day on which the Contract is entered into'. 

Although offers from Chelsea Food & Drinks Vintage Ltd/The Chelsea Food & Wine Company Ltd are remarkably generous, I'd give them a miss.   

* Given that these two companies have no common directors or registered offices, it is possible, as anon notes below, that The Chelsea Food & Drinks Vintage Ltd is incorrect in claiming that it is owned by The Chelsea Food & Wine Company.    

4 comments:

  1. Dear Jim
    I think you have wires crossed or been had, the Chelsea food and wine company ltd I believe to be legitimate, however the other company may be claiming that they own it because it helps there sales and adds legitimacy to a boiler room, similar to cloning a legitimate company, saying they have a shop , the names are so similar, secondly they could be calling using the legitimate companies name, even though they do not have permission or are really connected but the names are so similar

    I suggest you do better research as you are showing your age as a dinosaur

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Anonymous Dinosaur Spotter.

    You may be correct in suggesting that The Chelsea Food & Drinks Vintage Ltd may not actually have a connection with the Chelsea Food & Wine Company Ltd. My post notes that there are no common directors or registered offices. At present the shareholders of The Chelsea Food & Drinks Vintage Ltd are unknown.

    All of this is accurately reported in my post on these two companies.

    ReplyDelete
  3. maybe accurately recorded, but the damage you are doing t a possible innocent company could be substantial by inference

    ReplyDelete
  4. They're not an innocent company at all. They offered me a good 50% above what my portfolio was worth. Fortunately, I turned down their very generous offer...

    ReplyDelete