The general assumption is that recessions happen, they’re unpleasant, things are tough for a few years and then the good times come back.  But what if that’s not the case?

Now that the New Year has started many business owners are reflecting on their positions and whether it is time to sell their business. Since the recession of 2008 there has never been a better time to sell your business, and at present we are in a seller’s market.

Another intriguing episode in Donald Trump’s presidency arrived in early January, when President Trump abruptly walked out of a meeting with Democratic leaders held to try to break the impasse over the Federal Government shutdown, and funding of the proposed border wall with Mexico.

These are the harshest of times for the casual dining industry. Much like it is elsewhere on the beleaguered high-street, it seems that every week brings headlines of another restaurant business becoming insolvent or making mass closures. The past few months alone have seen established names such as Prezzo, Byron, Gaucho, Jamie’s Italian, Côte Brasserie and Strada close numerous outlets. Meanwhile, Carluccio’s is undergoing an insolvency process (a Company Voluntary Arrangement) to try to rescue itself.

A key benefit of a family charter is that it can create processes to record agreements on issues specific to the family that simply could not be dealt with in the company’s articles of association or shareholders’ agreement.

Only in exceptional circumstances will a court “pierce the corporate veil” and attach liability to a shareholder for the actions of a company thus reaffirming a long-standing principle of contract law.

Articles of Association (“Articles”) are rarely considered as the contract between a company and its shareholder(s) or the basic manual for the operation of that company, but this is exactly what they are.

With the imminent triggering of Article 50, business owners could be forgiven for thinking that the brakes would have been put on any decisions by potential buyers resulting in a slow-down of business sale transactions. However, that is not necessarily the case.  

The recent high court case of Gunewardena v Conran Holdings Limited illustrated how dramatically business relationships in the restaurant industry can deteriorate under immense pressure.