Kitchen closes on Kirsons

RIGA - Aizkraukle District Court on Feb. 24 declared businessman and owner of the popular restaurant and leisure chain ‘Lido,’ Gunars Kirsons, insolvent, reports news agency LETA. The full verdict will be available on March 7.
Normunds Uljanskis, who will act as the bankruptcy administrator, said that according to the bankruptcy procedures, Kirsons’ property will be seized and sold. He also pointed out that the property sales’ plan will be submitted to the Enterprise Register and will be publicly available there.

Kirsons’ creditors will be requested to specify their claims.
On Sept. 28, 2010, Riga’s Vidzeme District Court satisfied Kirsons’ request to apply out-of-court legal protection for Lido. Kirsons, quoted in the magazine Otkritiy Gorod, said that by filing for insolvency, he had hoped to save his Lido empire. “I went the personal bankruptcy route deliberately so that they would leave me alone five years,” he explained in the interview.
 “According to the new law, that [took] effect November 1, all property must be sold in six months and all bills and debts must be taken care of. But I filed while the old law was in effect. Five years is all I need to determine my errors, do some restructuring, and open new enterprises,” said an optimistic Kirsons.

The locally-popular restaurateur hoped to buy time and turn around his fortunes, as he was hit by a combination of excessive borrowing and Latvia’s floundering economy. He attributed blame for business errors equally to himself and to “the government and the bank.”

The company operated with a turnover of 18.2 million lats (26 million euros) and losses of 603,342 lats in 2009. In 2008, turnover reached 25.4 million lats, with losses at 1.7 million lats. In 2007 turnover was 24.2 million lats, but losses stood at 900,000 lats.

Lido’s main creditor is DnB Nord Bank, according to the company’s 2009 annual report.