Grant Thornton to oversee 16 Hospitality administration

Administrators from Grant Thornton have been appointed to the company behind four well-known pubs in Cheshire and Angelesey. The professionals are reportedly confident in finding a buyer for the businesses, despite the current Covid-19 lock-down.

The number of licensed premises in Britain is continuing its steady year-on-year decline, with a benchmark in late 2019 finding there were 2,920 fewer such venues than there were 12 months before. The sustained trend was already likely to have bled into 2020, even before the Covid-19 pandemic led to a lock-down that inevitably shunted a number of ailing food and drink firms into administration.

The latest victim of the current crisis is 16 Hospitality, a group which manages four pubs across Cheshire and Anglesey. 16 Hospitality’s most recent accounts from year ending December 2018 saw the group hold fixed assets of £23,430, falling slightly from just over £24,600 the year before. The company’s directors chose not to disclose the group’s profit and loss accounts within those financial statements, indicating the company may already have been in distress.

It seems that things did not improve over 2019, and now the economic turbulence connected to the coronavirus has caused 16 Hospitality to enter administration. Sarah O’Toole and Jason Bell from Grant Thornton UK’s Manchester office have been appointed to oversee the process.

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

16 Hospitality’s Cheshire locales The Partridge and The Old Hall Hotel, and Anglesey pubs The White Eagle and The Oyster Catcher, are all closed due to the on-going coronavirus-related restrictions, and the majority of its employees are furloughed. Quickly finding a buyer may help preserve those jobs, once the current crisis subsides.