High-profile Birmingham bar Nuvo has called in the liquidators for the second time in less than two years, it was revealed today.
The Brindleyplace cocktail lounge and club, run by brothers Chris and Cos Papachristoforou, has hit financial problems again in another blow to their city businesses.
The brothers also ran restaurants Edmunds and Cielo in Brindleyplace when they collapsed into liquidation last September.
Chris Papachristoforou blamed Nuvo’s latest problems on the insolvency of Laiki Bank in Cyprus, their businesses’ bankers.
“It has taken away all our facilities. If you have all your overdraft facilities frozen, how can you trade properly?
“We are no longer directors. It is not about Cielo, Edmunds or Nuvo, it is about what are we going to do now? How are we going to sort this mess out?
“There is no involvement. All I am trying to do is to sort out the situation with the bank and to see what we can then do from then onwards. Nuvo is trading under another company but it is in the hands of the liquidators.”
Nuvo first went bust in July 2012, three years after opening, following the intervention of HM Revenue and Customs.
At the time Mr Papachristoforou blamed the slump on problems plaguing the bars and restaurant sector, with customers having less disposable income.
There were more difficulties for the brothers in September last year, when fine dining restaurants Edmunds and Cielo both collapsed, and re-emerged under the wings of a new company.
Chris Papachristoforou said the insolvency of Laiki had caused huge problems in Cyprus.
“We are still in limbo. It is a very, very sad situation for anybody who had any dealings with them, with business loans or whatever.
“It is very difficult for a new lender to take on another client when all our securities are still in limbo. It is all tied in with the administration of the bank – it has caused no end of problems, I am sure my situation is not the only one, there are hundreds of thousands. People have had their money taken away from them, it has destroyed the economy in Cyprus.
“We have had overdraft facilities for all our businesses and when you get used to using that for working capital, how long can you go on telling your suppliers that it will not be long before everything is sorted?
“I do not know exactly what is going to happen.
"We are taking advice from liquidators KJ Watkin. All the businesses we were involved in, no longer are we directors. If it was hard enough before, it certainly is now.”
Nobody from liquidators KJ Watkin could be contacted.
