16 Hospitality appoints administrators

Sarah O’Toole and Jason Bell of Grant Thornton UK have been appointed as joint administrators of pub group 16 Hospitality.

The group owns and operates four pubs, including The Partridge in Stretton, The Old Hall Hotel in Frodsham, The White Eagle in Rhoscolyn and The Oyster Catcher in Rhosneigr.

The pubs are currently closed due to Covid-19 restrictions and the majority of the workforce has been furloughed. The administration took effect as of April 9 2020.

O’Toole said: “We are hopeful that we can find a buyer for the businesses despite the current challenges facing the pub and hospitality sector.”

It comes on the same day as the British Beer and Pub Association’s (BBPA) announcement on the government’s “failure” to defer beer duty being a “huge blow” to pubs and brewers across the UK, amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

The government has rejected the call for a blanket deferral of beer duty payments relating to beer produced in March, despite the BBPA, and other trade bodies, had called on the Government to defer April’s duty payment and those of the following quarter – totalling £750m – as a matter of urgency to provide vital cashflow support to the UK’s 2,000 brewers who supply the UK’s pubs.

BBPA said the relationship between pub and brewer is “symbiotic” with 70% of alcoholic drinks sold in pubs are beer, and with pubs now closed, 70% of the UK beer market by value has been cut-off to Britain’s 2,000 breweries.