Little Gem restructures

Steve Wilkins, the serial bar and restaurant entrepreneur, has led a restructuring of the Little Gems Country Dining business.

M&C understands that the company has emerged from the process with all three of its trading outlets — the leasehold Swan pub in Milton Keynes Village, the leasehold Chequers pub in Weston Turville near Aylesbury, and the freehold Howard Arms, a pub with rooms in the village of Ilmington, near Stratford-Upon-Avon.

The new company plans to operate the Swan and Howard Arms in the long term and use the two properties as the platform for a bigger business.

However, it is thought that the company plans to exit the Chequers. It has signed a short-term agreement on the property with landlord Punch Taverns, while efforts are made to find a long-term lessee.

It is believed that the company was forced to restructure after its banking partner HBOS, now part of Lloyds Banking Group, withdrew debt funding of about £2m.

It is thought that the new company was able to purchase the freehold of the Howard after raising new money from existing shareholders.

Sources close to the situation stressed that while the old Little Gems company was in the process of being liquidated all trade creditors had been paid in full.

The new vehicle is not thought to carry any bank debt.

Wilkins formed Little Gems in the wake of the sale of his previous venture Lewis & Clarke to Balls Brothers in 2006