11 Dec 2025
Social media posts celebrating “bringing the brand back” following the liquidation of popular eatery The Pudding Stop and its resurrection as The Bakery Stop have been deleted, and an expected reopening of its Redbourn store did not take place last weekend.
The announcements prompted a backlash on Facebook from customers questioning what was happening about paying Pudding Stop staff after the business folded on September 29.
Founder Johnny Shepherd had posted a message on November 17 which said: “Since we closed, we’ve had a significant outpouring of love and support from the local community. People coming forward offering help and ideas on how we could keep going. Those discussions proved worthwhile and productive. With a shared enthusiasm and desire to bring the brand back.
“So… We’re coming back.”
But as The Pudding Stop no longer exists as a trading entity following its liquidation, it was arguably specious to suggest the new venture was just a case of business as usual.
Also removed were the original posts explaining that The Pudding Stop was closing, and restrictions have been put in place to limit who can comment on certain posts.
The Facebook page was actually created on January 7 2014, so long before The Bakery Stop every existed, and there are still historic references to The Pudding Stop if you scroll back far enough.
Details of The Pudding Stop’s outstanding debts have been published on Companies House, and include liabilities of more than £624,000, including £127K to employees.
These staff members had to wait until the end of their notice periods – in some cases up to three months – before they could receive any compensation from the Government’s Redundancy Payment Service, which is funded by National Insurance contributions and not from any assets of a liquidated business.
They were first notified of their redundancy on September 29, with the appointment of a liquidator taking place on November 3. At this point, staff were left to make their own claims from the company as creditors, but had no support or guidance in the procedure.
Because their individual claims were so small in comparison to HMRC or The Pudding Stop’s landlords, they would not receive anything from the assets left over from the liquidation, which was estimated to be just £43,786.47.
Notably, employees’ names and full address details were sent out to all staff, together with the amounts of secured and unsecured debts they were owed.
Staff’s claims were only processed by the RPS after they had calculated their average gross and net income, and any holiday pay owed, and started to be paid out in early December. That meant three months of rent, council tax, bills and living costs before many former employees received any money.
Of these, some claims were much less than staff were owed, there were mistakes with tax, or they were reduced if employees found a new job during their notice period.
Apart from the debts to major creditors, none of the gift vouchers sold by The Pudding Stop days before it closed will be honoured by the new business either, leaving customers out of pocket as a result. Staff were not advised to stop selling the vouchers in the run up to the closure, even though they had been told to pause orders to suppliers.
One customer who contacted the St Albans Times said: “My six-year-old grandson had £20 vouchers for his birthday from his friend on September 16, and before he could get his hot chocolate and cake the company had closed.”
