Sheffield NHS Trust writes-off 'unrecoverable' £750,000 debt owed by failed coffee company
More than £750,000 of debt owed to Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust by a failed coffee retailer has been written off by the Trust’s board of directors.
AMT Coffee Limited owed the Trust £752,169.09 before the debt was cancelled at a board meeting on January 28, 2025.
The firm went into administration in November 2022, following a “turbulent period of trading/non-trading during the COVID pandemic”.
Money owed to the Trust was “unsecured” - meaning they were the last of those owed cash to be paid following administration.
A report presented to the Trust’s board stated “the final administrators report issued on 12 November 2024 confirms that there are insufficient funds to pay a dividend to the unsecured creditors”.
The board was recommended to write-off the debt as it has been deemed “unrecoverable” - leaving the organisation three-quarters-of-a-million out of pocket.
Louisa Cowell, chief financial officer at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: "Since 2016 AMT Coffee provided two cafes at our hospitals. In 2021 the impact of the pandemic, which caused a drop in the number of people in our hospitals, meant they then struggled to pay the money they owed us from this point. This was additional money, on top of the NHS funding we receive.
“As soon as the first monies became owed we used every avenue available to recover the debt but in 2022 AMT went into administration and we have been informed that there is no money to repay us. We therefore have no choice but to write off the money owed from our accounts."
AMT were the incumbent retail providers at the Trust’s main hospital sites.
They operated out of the Northern General Hospital from February 2016 and the Royal Hallamshire Hospital from April 2018.
AMT Coffee Ltd was bought of out administration by the SSP Group, saving a number of AMT locations such as in York Railway Station.
The SSP Group did not assume AMT’s debts.