North East pub group Wear Inns is being liquidated a year after the company was snapped up in a £22.4m investment deal.
The Castle Eden firm, which has 25 pub venues around the North East and Yorkshire, was acquired by Aprirose, owners of the QHotels chain, from the Business Growth Fund and NVM Private Equity in the significant deal in August 2018.
Wear Inns had originally been founded by pub entrepreneurs John Weir and John Sands back in 2006, with the pair getting backing from NVM to acquire and manage a chain of community pubs.
However, the firm lost its founders when Mr Sands, a former North East Business Executive of the Year, died in 2017, a year after the death of Mr Weir.
All shareholders – including the estates of Mr Weir and Mr Sands – successfully exited as part of the Aprirose deal the following summer, which brought the Wear Inns pub estate under a larger, growing operation which has since made further pub acquisitions.
Now accounts for Wear Inns – which has pubs including The Guide Post in Gateshead, The Black Bull in East Boldon, Gosforth’s Millstone and the Black Bull in Morpeth – have revealed how the Wear Inns company is being liquidated amid a rebranding exercise, bringing 45 Aprirose pubs under a new name, Blackrose.
A report within the accounts tells how a reorganisation has taken place within the Aprirose firm used to make the acquisition – Milton Portfolio Holdings 3 ltd.
The operations and pub staff have been transferred to one subsidiary, while management have been transferred to another, and the company is now managed by Blackrose Management Ltd.
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The accounts say: “Wear Inns did not therefore trade after the year end. It is the intention to liquidate Wear Inns Limited in due course once all creditors and other liabilities and obligations have been fully satisfied.”
The move comes as the firm posted turnover of £13.63m in the year to March 30, 2019, slightly down on the previous year’s £13.64m.
Operating profit almost halved from £1.4m to £798,000, and the overall loss for the year widened from £144,603 to £191,467. Acquisition-related costs amounted to £194,496, a list of exceptional items shows.
The report says the company traded well through the financial year, but that it faced competition. It said: “As in previous years, the company faced competition from other managed and leased public houses and from ‘off trade’, principally supermarkets selling alcoholic beverages, particularly beer, at low cost as a loss-leader, thus affecting the consumer’s decision to visit a pub or drink at home. On the economic environment, the ongoing Brexit process created uncertainty, which in turn generated changes in consumer activity.
“The company’s pubs achieved a measure of protection from external economic factors due to the good value offer and the local community nature of the majority of the pubs within the estate.”
Looking ahead, the pubs that formed the Wear Inns portfolio are now poised for a makeover as part of growth plans for the Blackrose name. Six have already been relaunched under the new name.
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Daren Knipe, managing director at Blackrose, said: “We have a clear and structured business strategy for our 43 海角视频-wide pub portfolio. It will undergo significant asset management and modernisation and we have introduced a capital expenditure programme to ensure that we create a brand and a company that ensures consistency and quality of experience in all our premises.
“We have an experienced and skilful team in place as we strive to offer a seamless and best-in-class service to our customers. We have already re-launched six of the pubs in the portfolio and aim to complete eight further capital development projects by the end of the year.”