Cains Beer Company – the historic Liverpool-based brewery and pub company – has been placed into administration.
The company, a brewer of award-winning beers and lagers, operates a chain of 100 pubs which includes 26 freehold and 76 leasehold pubs, most of which are managed houses.
Administrators PricewaterhouseCoopers said it had already received interest from potential buyers and are looking for further offers for the brewery or the pub chain, both of which will remain open during the process.
Last week the Aim-listed company – which is headed by the Dusanj brothers – suspended trading in its shares on the stock market.
Cains undertook a £37m reverse takeover of Honeycombe Leisure in May 2007, which saw it acquire 92 pubs.
The Bank of Scotland provided £40m, of which £30m was a loan facility, £5m in working capital and £5m to fund refurbishment of the pubs.
Cost of servicing the interest on debt amounted to £1.2m in interest for the most recent six month period, compared with just £66,000 a year ago.
Last month the company announced it had made six month losses of £4.6m and it had also faced a winding up order from HM Revenues & Customs.
David Chubb, partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers and joint administrator, said: "Cains is a well-established business with a great brand and brewing facility which has been brewing ales since the mid-19th century.
“Its ales have won a number of awards, most recently the World’s Best Fruit Beer in the World Beer Awards 2007. Cains is also a major supplier of own label beers to the supermarket sector.”
“It is currently our intention to continue to trade both the brewery and pub chain businesses and we will seek to achieve going concern sales over the coming weeks and months.
“We have already received some early indications of interest and we would also invite any parties interested in acquiring either the brewery or pub chain businesses to contact us as soon as possible."
The administrators are working with staff at the brewery and the landlords and staff in the pubs to ensure that they remain open whilst the administrators seek buyers, added Chubb.
