Everest closes Piata Romana restaurant, after filing for insolvency

Everest Foods, the company managing Everest fast-food restaurant of Bucharest's Piata Romana, decided to close it, after having filed for insolvency late last year under pressures coming from its main creditor and owner of the space, Metropolitan Leasing. "The value of debts to the 14 lenders stands at 500,000 euros, with the biggest sums to be returned to the owner of Metropolitan Leasing space, with which the firm has had a rental contract," stated the representatives of Manta sI Asociatii SPRL, the court-appointed administrator in charge of the company's internal reorganisation. Everest brand is operated in a franchise, with Vivartia, the biggest food group of Greece, with 60m-euro domestic turnover generated by Finetti and Chipita producers as its owner. In 2008, Everest Foods reported 1.24m-euro turnover and 100,000-euro losses, according to the Finance Ministry, having 44 employees. "The company is in talks for various solutions to continue its operations. They'll either reach an agreement with the owners of the current space to cut the area, as rents are very high, or they will find another space to open a new restaurant," the administrator says.