Former employees of the collapsed White’s grocery stores will receive some of the money they are owed, the official liquidators said yesterday.

Mike Morrison and Charles Thresh of professional services firm KPMG, who are the joint liquidators, confirmed that “a recovery has been made in the estates of the companies which will allow a partial dividend payment to be made to employee creditors of the companies”.

Now a meeting is to be held at the Bermuda Industrial Union’s headquarters on Wednesday, July 20 for employee creditors.

Mr Thresh said: “We appreciate the patience of the former employees in relation to this liquidation.

“Unfortunately, it is not unusual for cases of this size and nature to take a number of years to resolve given their legal complexity, but we are pleased to be able to give notice of a dividend payment to the employee creditors.

“The level of the dividend will be determined and announced when the full extent of employee creditor claims are known.”

KPMG has notified employee claimants of the meeting, based on company records.”

But they said that any former employees who had not received notification or who want to nominate another person to attend the meeting on their behalf should contact Sahima Choudhury on 295-5063, extension 337, or e-mail sahimachoudhury@kpmg.bm.

The Warwick supermarket White and Sons Ltd closed in August, 2012, with all staff forfeiting their jobs.

The Southside store followed suit, as did the firm’s Haywards supermarket.

Wholesalers Pitt & Co, along with the BGA Group of Companies, were both successful in March, 2014 with a lawsuit against White’s owners Gary and Michael White over $1.8 million owed to them.

The chain was not a limited liability company, resulting in months of legal disputes that ended with a ruling by Puisne Judge Stephen Hellman in favour of the major creditors.