THE quest for a perfect smile has turned into a grimace for hundreds of people who have lost huge sums of money after the demise of dental group Smile Direct Club.
Despite still taking customers’ cash last week it put out a message on its website late on Friday saying it had made the “incredibly difficult decision to wind down its global operations”.
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The US-based firm, launched in the UK in 2019, promised customers a cheaper way to straighten teeth with clear aligners that could be bought remotely and used at home.
The company said it was closing down after rescue financing failed.
It was once worth £7billion but filed for bankruptcy protection under a debt mountain of £717million.
Yesterday the company was worth just £1.4million.
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Many customers were halfway through their treatment and will now have to face costs of a new treatment elsewhere.
Meanwhile Smile Direct’s website says customers still have to honour payment plans and refunds information will come “once the bankruptcy process determines next steps”.
Customers had been offered a “lifetime smile guarantee” but the website now says “effective immediately the Lifetime Smile Guarantee no longer exists.”
Customer Hannah Robinson said on TikTok: “During this whole bankruptcy, they kept emailing saying everything was going to be OK, we’re still continuing.
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“What do I do now?”
Meanwhile Vittorio Mariotti, posted on TrustPilot: “Completely disappointed. Now I can’t finish my treatment and I will have to go somewhere else.”
Begbies gets bust & boom
A SURGE in companies in financial distress is proving lucrative for Begbies Traynor.
The restructuring firm — sometimes called a professional ambulance chaser — said revenues had risen by 13 per cent to £65.9million, helped by an increase in “insolvency activity levels”.
It expects even more collapses in the next year.
Recent figures show insolvencies rose ten per cent year-on-year to the highest level since the global financial crisis.
Executive chairman Ric Traynor said the increase “reflects the current interest rate and inflation environment”.
Ticket to raid for O2 owner
MADONNA brought the London leg of her Celebration Tour at the O2 to a close last week.
Punters forked out an average of £93 for a standard ticket to see the Material Girl.
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Now, AEG, the owner of the O2 Arena and Hammersmith Apollo is eyeing up a takeover of ticketing site See Tickets, which has been put up for sale by French media firm Vivendi with a £256million price tag.
See Tickets is one of the biggest ticketing merchants and expects to sell 43million tickets to gigs and festivals across 10 countries this year.
First round bids have already been submitted, according to the FT.
AEG already owns AXS, which was the ticket partner to Madonna’s recent tour, but an acquisition of See Tickets could make it a stronger challenger to Ticketmaster.
Tech firm tidy Sum
BRITISH tech payments firm Sumup has shrugged off wider fundraising struggles to attract £244million as fresh firepower for growth.
SumUp makes card readers for small businesses using contactless payments and processes online orders.
It is now valued at £8.5billion, has more than 4million business customers and operates in 36 markets.
Cash raised by British firms from venture capitalists has halved in the past year.
Taking a Shein to London
FAST-FASHION giant Shein has held meetings with bosses at the London Stock Exchange about listing in the UK.
Shein – pronounced “She In” – has recently been valued at around £50billion.
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Donald Tang, Shein’s executive chairman, met LSE bosses last week, Sky News reported.
Shein has also filed documents that pave the way for a flotation in New York.
A dual listing in both financial centres is unlikely, experts say.
The London stock market is keen to win more big companies after heavy criticism of shrinking investor support.
Shein recently bought Missguided from Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group.
Insiders say it made £1.1billion in UK sales last year and has 150 million users globally.
Shein, founded in China by Skye Wu in 2012, has moved its headquarters to Singapore but relies heavily on cheap labour in Chinese textile factories.
Its garments have an average price of less than £6.
Rate expectation
TOP central banks will this week try to dampen hopes of interest rates falling — but markets are not taking notice.
The US Federal Reserve will be the first tomorrow, followed by the Bank of England and the European Central Bank on Thursday.
The Bank of England is expected to keep rates at 5.25 per cent — and warn it will take longer to reduce inflation.
The CBI thinks rates will not fall until 2026, but money markets have been turned off by wrong economic forecasts and 98 per cent of investors are still betting that interest rates will be cut in June.
Mortgage madness
FIXED mortgage rates have hit their lowest level in six months, according to Moneyfacts.
An average two year mortgage is now 6.04 per cent and a five year fixed 5.65 per cent.
Homeowners now face cheaper loans than August’s 7.10 per cent.
Smith boss raise
THE boss of WH Smith has been handed a bumper 78 per cent pay rise after sales at its overseas airport shops soared.
Carl Cowling, who was promoted to the top job in 2019, received £2.91million in pay last year compared to £1.63million the year before.
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More than £2million of his pay was performance bonus related after profits leapt 74 per cent to £110million while its sales grew by 28 per cent to £1.7billion on new openings.
WH Smith was hit hard by the Covid pandemic but now makes more sales and profits from its US airports business than UK high street shops
