Adnams has confirmed it has appointed financial advisors to help it explore funding options, amid a slew of insolvencies across the brewing sector.
The Suffolk brewer issued a short statement confirming it had “instructed advisors to explore a range of options to fund our future growth plans”.
It comes after Sky News reported the brewer and pub group operator had hired Alvarez & Marsal in a bid to raise cash. Options on the table, Sky reported, included the injection of new capital or the sale of some of its freehold pub assets.
Approached by The Grocer, Alvarez & Marsal declined to comment.
It comes after losses at Adnams widened in the first six months of last year – to £2.4m – while revenues were flat at around £30m.
Chairman Jonathan Adnams said “continued pressure on input prices and reduced demand particularly in quarter one of the year” were behind the slide in Adnams’ bottom line.
He added the falling number of UK pubs and a shrinking cask beer market were to blame for sluggish sales.
Adnams is one of the UK’s oldest brewers, dating back to 1890. The brewer produces a range of cask conditioned, bottled and canned ales and lagers, as well as distilling gin, vodka and whisky.
Its pub estate comprises a total of 45 managed inns and tied properties.
Popular beers from Adnams include its Broadside Ale, Southwold Bitter and Ghost Ship 0.5% alcohol-free ale.
Breweries across the UK have struggled to bounce back from the Covid-19 pandemic, amid inflationary pressures, high interest rates and subdued consumer demand.
Among those to have gone bust in the past 12 months are Yorkshire-based Black Sheep and Leeds-based North Brewing.
Black Sheep, along with Warwickshire’s Purity Brewing Company, was purchased out of administration by London private equity firm Breal.
North Brewing, meanwhile, was sold in a pre-pack deal to Vertical Drinks, the owner of Kirkstall Brewery.
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