C2, the north-west pub operator and brewer, has released two sites as it looks to consolidate its assets.
Co-founder Matt Jackson told M&C Report the company has just completed the sale of the lease on Molinari’s Italian restaurant in Lancaster, while the Palatine pub in Morecambe is in the process of being transferred from a managed house into a tenancy as, “it just wasn’t performing as well as it should do as a managed house”.
Meanwhile, C2, which now has two pubs and two hotels, is scaling back production at its 76%-owned Lancaster Brewing Company.
Jackson said: “We are reducing our production of beer because of the insane duty requirements.
“We were doing 180 brewer’s barrels a week on a capacity of 80% and it was costing us a fortune and we couldn’t get anymore finance from the banks, so we’ve refocused our attention to have almost a rationed crop as it were.
“We’re trying to take it down to 70 brewer’s barrels because we’ve still got our national accounts.”
C2 is also looking at expanding the exports side of the brewery business; sales are already doing well in Scandinavia, and the company is just about to open an office in America so it can target business there.
Jackson added: “We’re going to concentrate on exports where the Chancellor does not get hold of it – that’s where our new growth will be.”
