Pubfolio goes into administration owing £50m-plus

Pubfolio, the Trowbridge-headquartered pub operator, has gone into administration owing its banks in excess of £50m.

As well as Pubfolio, whose estate numbered around 250 pubs, another smaller operator, Goldtry, has also gone into administration, which it is being handled by accountants PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

David Chubb, of PwC, said it would be business as usual for the pubs while buyers were sought. Management of the sites had been handed over to Pebble Management, headed by industry veteran Ted Kennedy.

"Pubfolio was unable to meet all of its financial commitments," Chubb said, who confirmed there is no rush to sell the pubs affected. "If we get a blinding offer for the pubs we will take it, otherwise we are in hurry to sell.

The group's bank, Anglo Irish Bank, is content to look at all the options, Chubb said. "We don't have to sell next week, or even next year. It wants the best outcome to get back its money."

Pubfolio established itself at the beginning of 2005 after completing on a deal to buy 545 pubs of the old Innspired estate from Punch Taverns for £162m.

The pubs, which were managed by County Estate Management, were mostly wet-led, community locals. The group's business model was to sell chunks of the estate to property investment outfits, but with the collapse in the property market three years ago, prices - and the appetite of developers - faded away.

Its pubs have been fed onto the market in recent years with varying degree of success; two years ago more than 40 of Pubfolio's sites were remarketed at significantly lower prices than previously in order to shift them.

Observers said the group's pubs had been "slaughtered" by the smoking ban, as well as rising utility costs, factors which led to revenues across the estate falling by between 25 and 30 per cent in recent years.

Pubfolio's bank, Anglo Irish Bank, has had its own set of financial troubles in recent months and is currently in the process being wound up by the Irish government at a reported cost of €25bn (£21.3bn) over 15 years.

The move into administration means County Estate Management will no longer manage the Pubfolio estate and now loks after around 150 pubs.