Turnover at a historic family-owned brewery and pubs chain slumped by more than £20m because of the Covid-19 pandemic while it fell to a pre-tax loss, new documents have confirmed.
Hydes Brewery, which can trace its roots back to 1863, has reported a turnover of £8.5m for the 12 months to March 28, 2021, down from the £29.4m it reported in the prior year.
It also made a pre-tax loss of £3.6m, compared to a profit of £1.1m.
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Hydes Brewery owns 33 managed and 19 tenanted pubs in the North West and North Wales.
According to the documents, which were recently filed with Companies House, the business was boosted by almost £241,000 of sales through the Government's Eat Out To Help Out scheme and it secured over £4.5m in furlough payments.
The number of people employed by Hydes Brewery during the year dropped from 603 to 562.
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In a statement signed off by the board, non-executive chairman Richard Lancaster said: "The year under review represents by first full year as chairman and it proved to be a unique and challenging period given the Covid-19 pandemic.
"The board is grateful for the constant dedication, hard work and diligence of our colleagues, under the outstanding leadership of Adam Mayers, whatever role they performed in the business.
"Their response to ensuring we traded in a Covid safe manner, to ever changing regulations, to closures, to re-openings and to ensuring that we provided great products and service, when we were allowed to trade, was quite outstanding.
"To safeguard the finances of the company, significant reductions were negotiated with suppliers and the directors also took a 20% pay reduction and forfeited holidays during the first lockdown period.
"Our colleagues are fundamental to the success of the business and I thank them for their very significant contribution in a year like no other."