A winding-up petition against the company behind Freddie's Afro Caribbean on Whitley Street is listed for hearing on Wednesday 2 September. HMRC brought it.

HM Revenue and Customs has asked the High Court to wind up the company registered at 33-35 Whitley Street, Reading, the address of the Afro-Caribbean food shop Freddie’s. The petition is listed to be heard on Wednesday 2 September at 10.30am.

The company is Freddies Afro Caribbean Ltd, number 11014317. HMRC presented the petition on 13 July 2026, claiming to be a creditor, and the notice was published in the London Gazette on 20 August (notice 5194069). It will be heard at the Rolls Building at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, under case number CR-2026-005481.

Anyone who wants to appear at the hearing, whether to support the petition or to oppose it, must give notice to HMRC or its solicitor by 4pm on Tuesday 1 September.

What the register shows

Companies House still lists the company as Active. Its registered office is 33-35 Whitley Street, RG2 0EG, it was incorporated on 16 October 2017, and its recorded business is “other retail sale in non-specialised stores” (company 11014317). Its most recent accounts were made up to 31 October 2025.

The Food Standards Agency register lists Freddie’s Afro Caribbean as a retailer at 33 Whitley Street, RG2 0EG. It is one of more than 20 food businesses the same register lists on Whitley Street, most of them independents. Our Reading business directory has them.

Key dates in the winding-up petition against Freddies Afro Caribbean Ltd, from July to September 2026
The dates on the public record. Source: The London Gazette and Companies House.

What a winding-up petition is, and is not

A petition is a request to the court, not a decision. The court can make a winding-up order, dismiss the petition, or adjourn it. Petitions are also routinely withdrawn when the debt is paid or an arrangement is agreed before the hearing, and a company can dispute the debt.

So the company is not in liquidation today, and nothing on the public record says the shop has stopped trading. What the record does say is that a creditor, in this case the tax authority, has asked the court to close the company down, and that a judge will look at it on Wednesday.

We report what the statutory registers record. The company is entitled to respond, and if it does we will publish that.

What it means for you

  • If you shop there, the petition says nothing about whether the shop is open. Check before you travel.
  • If you are owed money by the company, the Gazette notice is the formal route in. Creditors can support or oppose a petition, but only if they give notice by 4pm on 1 September to HMRC’s solicitor, whose contact details are on the notice.
  • If you hold a gift voucher or a deposit with any company facing a petition, a winding-up order would rank you as an unsecured creditor, near the back of the queue. That is the general position in an insolvency, not a prediction about this case.
  • If you run a Reading business and have fallen behind with tax, HMRC petitions are the most common route to a compulsory winding up. The Insolvency Service’s guidance sets out the options before a petition is presented.

We check the London Gazette’s insolvency notices for Reading addresses every week. Most notices that mention Reading are not Reading businesses at all: the RG postal town reaches well past the borough, and an insolvency practitioner’s own office address is often registered as the company’s. Two other companies whose Gazette notices carried Reading addresses this month, a toy maker and a care operator, had both moved their registered office to a Reading professional’s office weeks before the notice appeared, and neither traded here.

Sources: The London Gazette, notice 5194069, 20 August 2026; Companies House, Freddies Afro Caribbean Ltd (11014317); Food Standards Agency ratings register. Checked 30 August 2026.