Mon, 22 Jan 2024 | ADMINISTRATION
Leeds-based brewery North Brewing Company Limited has filed a notice of intention (NOI) to appoint administrators, as the UK brewing industry continues to be battered by an array of adverse headwinds. The company, founded in 2011, has reportedly lined up Atle Crowe-Maxwell as administrator.
After filing the NOI earlier this month, company founders John Gyngell and Christian Townsley said that they were working with advisors and had commenced a process to seek additional investment to help the business continue trading. The company’s North Bar venues are unaffected by the process.
In a statement, the founders said that the business, like much of “the rest of the hospitality and brewing world”, had been hit by factors such as COVID-19, Brexit, the cost-of-living crisis, high interest rates and cost increases over the past four years.
Speaking to The Morning Advertiser, Christian Townsley said that the company had been significantly impacted by high interest rates, which had contributed to making the cost of repayments on the company’s borrowings dating from the COVID-19 pandemic unmanageable.
Townsley continued that, while some of the company’s lenders had been “accommodating”, one particular lender had been "unresponsive". He added that the company had recovered from registering its first ever significant loss during the year 2022-2023 and had been poised to post a profit this year, but said that its debt repayments were like “cement shoes”.
In the company’s financial accounts for the year ending March 31 2022, the directors stated that the business had achieved year-on-year turnover growth of more than 45 per cent, but did not disclose its revenue, profit or loss figures.
At the time, its fixed assets were valued at slightly over £2.6 million and current assets at just under £930,000. However, the company’s significant debts meant that it reported total liabilities of around £98,000.
Read more about the headwinds facing UK craft breweries
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