Cains bids due, Dusanj brothers tipped for brewery
Bids for Cains Beer Company are due to be lodged with administrators Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) today, following the collapse of the company two weeks' ago.
The Dusanj brothers are tipped to buy the brewing and canning business, while PwC has received "dozens" of approaches for other parts of the business.
Ajmail and Sudarghara Dusanj, who rescued Cains in 2002 and then oversaw a reverse takeover with Honeycombe Leisure last year, already own the brewery freehold - it emerged earlier this week that they own the property through a separate company. Cains had been paying about £0.5m to lease the brewery site per year.
Interest in the brewing operation from third parties is understood to have been limited. Less than a third of the volumes produced at the brewery are for Cains' beer brands. About 58% is own-label brewing and about 14% is contract brewing. The brewery also includes one of the biggest canning operations in the UK.
Before its collapse, Cains operated about 115 pubs, of which about 85 are leasehold. Most of these pubs operate as managed houses but about a dozen trade under a tenancy model.
The 30 or so freehold pubs within the business are thought to have attracted the most interest.
The Dusanj brothers also own the freeholds of about 10 pubs leased to Cains, and are expected to regain control of these houses.
Ahead of today's bids - due at midday - PwC is understood to have closed a number of pubs that were losing money. Most of the Punch and Admiral leased pubs are expected to be handed back to the respective pub groups.
