(Image: Darren Greenwood)
The boss of a York catering firm due to enter liquidation has said the company accepts responsibility for the disruption which saw couples scrambling to rearrange their weddings hours before the events.
In an exclusive interview with The Press, Ashley Hyde, co-director of Dining by Matthew Hyde Ltd, which legally traded as Baba Ganoush – Dining by Matthew Hyde Ltd, said the company is “genuinely devastated by the closure of Dining by Matthew Hyde and the impact it’s had on couples and their families, employees, venues and suppliers”.
Lauren and Luke Marsland-Gray said they were told at 11pm on Thursday, October 1, that Baba Ganoush – Dining by Matthew Hyde Ltd would cease trading the following day, the day of their wedding at Hornington Manor, near Bolton Percy.
It meant the couple, who said they paid thousands of pounds for Baba Ganoush – Dining by Matthew Hyde Ltd to cater the wedding, had just hours to find alternative catering.
Lauren and Luke Marsland-Gray on their wedding day (Image: Supplied)
Another couple whose wedding took place on Saturday, October 3, also said they found out about the liquidation of Baba Ganoush – Dining by Matthew Hyde Ltd at 11pm on October 1 and had to pay a further £2,100 to hire a new catering company.
“We completely understand the anger and disappointment, and the distress for those weddings that were disrupted at short notice,” Ashley told The Press. “We never thought that that would happen.
“We just did not have the staffing and infrastructure due to the decisions that we’d made.”
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Asked whether the couples who booked Baba Ganoush – Dining by Matthew Hyde Ltd to cater their wedding before the firm ceased trading would be refunded, Ashley said: “We are working with them. Some of them do have insurance, which we are working with them to deal with.
"The majority we’ve spoken to have got insurance so we will, obviously, be offering all we can to support that.
"At the moment, in terms of refunding couples, it does have to go through a process. And it does have to go through our insolvency practitioner.”
She said the decision that Baba Ganoush – Dining by Matthew Hyde Ltd would enter liquidation on October 30 was made on October 1.
“We had no intention of letting the couples down,” she said when asked why couples were not warned earlier.
Ashley said Baba Ganoush – Dining by Matthew Hyde Ltd, based at York Business Park and later at the Thorp Arch Trading Estate near Wetherby, “struggled with staffing” but “catered 1,734 weddings over the last 10 years without a hitch”.
However, Ashley, who is co-director of the businesses with her husband Matthew, said: “We accept responsibility for the company and for not being able to fulfil those commitments.
"In terms of communication with couples, we have personally reached out to every couple that has been affected over that period of time to apologise and outline the options available to them.
"We’ve been dealing with, obviously, a high volume of correspondence. It’s currently just myself that’s managing that because I want to get back to people personally.
"... We’re not ignoring people that have been affected – we remain committed to helping people as best as we possibly can.”
Couples told The Press they were offered 10 per cent discounts when paying in advance for their wedding catering by Baba Ganoush – Dining by Matthew Hyde Ltd.
“In terms of the early payment incentive and things like that, that is something that all suppliers and venues offer – that is nothing unusual in the industry at all,” Ashley said.
Four other catering companies in the York area told The Press they do not offer early payment incentives and were not aware of other businesses that do.
Meanwhile, a former Baba Ganoush – Dining by Matthew Hyde Ltd staff member claimed some fellow employees were paid late, meaning they had not been paid when working at weddings.
“All staff have been contacted via letter, I believe, from our insolvency practitioner,” Ashley said. “It’s something we would ever want to do – staff have worked really hard for us. But staff aren’t owed months and months and months of wages.
"It’s come to an abrupt halt, and we have entered the liquidation process. And staff will receive their monies and any redundancy and any pensions through that process.”
Directors to set up new business - despite liquidation
Going forward, Ashley said she and Matthew aim to continue wedding catering with their new business, Marjoram Yorkshire Limited.
Ashley said the new venture will be a smaller operation run by her and Matthew because the previous business reached a “point and a size where it was too big for myself and Matthew to control and to maintain quality”.
Asked why anyone should trust them to cater their wedding after the collapse of Baba Ganoush – Dining by Matthew Hyde Ltd, Ashley said: “I think because we’ve had an excellent reputation in Yorkshire for a decade.
"And we have catered over 1,700 weddings that, ultimately, have gone really well and people have loved it.”
Ashley said she has contacted couples that had booked future wedding catering with Baba Ganoush – Dining by Matthew Hyde Ltd.
“It’s completely their choice if they want to go ahead with us,” she said.
“Myself and Matt would like to continue the business, but just with us and a very, very small team that we can manage and control and ensure quality going forward.
"There are some couples we’ve spoken to in the future that have said they booked with initially because of me and Matt, and they do want to go ahead with us. And we would like to fulfil those people’s weddings.”