Grocery and tobacco wholesaler Palmer & Harvey has gone into administration with 2,500 immediate redundancies and 900 jobs at risk photos@southbedsnews.co.ukPalmer & Harvey paid out nearly £77 million in dividends to a select group of executives and managers in the decade after the failed grocer’s debt-laden management buyout. In news that will anger thousands of workers who have lost their jobs just weeks before Christmas, an analysis by The Times has revealed that holders of preference shares received roughly £8 million in dividends a year for nearly a decade after a management buyout driven by Christopher Adams, the former chairman, and Christopher Etherington, the former chief executive and chairman. Dividends and redemptions on preference shares continued to be paid out even in more recent challenging times, when Palmer & Harvey’s own group reserves were negative, in a dividend regime described by one former accountant as…

Source: The Times December 02, 2017 00:00 UTC