by The PMA Team
Barber Letting, a multiple lessee that held 46 pubs with two major pub companies, has gone into receivership.
The Barnsley-based company, which held 26 pubs with Punch (including Barber Letting subsidiary companies) and 20 pubs with Avebury Taverns, is believed to have run into problems with an unpaid VAT bill.
It operated by charging its managers a fee for occupying their leased pubs in a sort of franchise arrangement. Managers, who also pay a fee upfront, would be given the chance by Barber Letting to buy the lease.
Punch Taverns has 17 Barber Letting pubs being operating by the receiver. Francis Patton, Punch customer service director, said: "They are operating perfectly well under receivership.
"We have an exit strategy that involves talking to managers about running them. We also have another operator interested in taking them on."
Punch has also moved to take back a further nine pubs operated by Barber Letting subsidiary companies Mr Qs, Future Inns and Parkways Taverns.
Patton denied there was anything unusual about the arrangement with Barber Letting. "It operated in the same way as quite a few multiple lessees do."
David Myers, chief executive of Avebury Taverns, said: "We took possession of 15 pubs last week and are in discussion with administrators to get the other five back.
"I think Barber Letting embarked on a fairly aggressive development plan.
"On the 15 pubs we've got back we've started discussions with licensees about taking a lease in their own right. On the other five, the position is less clear."
Myers said that Barber Letting, which took its first Avebury pub four years ago, had undertaken a number of good refurbishment schemes.
A search of Companies House records showed that Barber Letting's last full-year accounts are eight months overdue. Its directors are listed as Terence Gaskell and Peter Quirke.