Receivers called in at Chequers

CHEQUERS, the interior decorator and Britain's leading snooker table maker, has lost its battle for survival and appointed the accountants Robson Rhodes as receivers, writes Robert Cole. The move puts the jobs of Chequers' 370-strong workforce in doubt.

Receivers were called in after pressure from the group's bank, Barclays. Riley, the snooker operation, has been left out of the administration order and continues to trade.

Phillip Sims, the new chairman of Chequers, which changed its name from Dean & Bowes earlier this year, said of Riley: 'There are interested parties.'

The receivership comes as Chequers pursues legal action against its former chairman and chief executive, Stephen Dean, in connection with a pounds 200,000 severance settlement and the unsuccessful sale of Platonoff & Harris, a joinery business.

Mr Dean, who founded and built the business, left in February and bought one of the original operations at the same time.

Dealings in Chequers' shares were suspended at 4p on 16 July. They were trading at 210p in May 1989.

The group's last set of results, for the six months to 30 June 1991, showed that profits slumped from pounds 1.7m to pounds 300,000.