TROUBLE Revolution Bars is to close a further 25 locations across the UK after the High Court approved a restructuring plan.
The plans mean it will avoid insolvency after suffering from the pandemic.
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It was a challenging time for the pub managerCredit: Michael Schofield
Once the overhaul is complete, the company said it will operate 65 facilities.
It will consist of 27 Revolution Bars, 15 Revolucion de Cuba bars, 22 Peach Pubs and one Founders & Co site.
Affected locations have not yet been revealed, but loss bars will be affected.
The company has fallen on hard times in recent years, as the cost-of-living crisis and young Britons drinking less have hurt sales.
The drinker needed the court to approve the review, which he hopes will restore his finances after a difficult few years following the pandemic.
We hope that the High Court ruling will draw a line under a difficult few months for business.
Commenting today, CEO Rob Pitcher said: “The group is now well diversified across key brands, providing a more secure financial base and we look forward to the future with enhanced optimism.
“We know this has been a very difficult time for all our teams both across our sites and in our support office and I would like to thank them for their support and resilience.”
This is not the first time the brand has closed pubs.
In 2020, the bar chain announced plans to close six locations as it struggled to stay afloat during the coronavirus pandemic.
As recently as July, Revolution Bars Group revealed to The Sun that it would be closing 11 locations on August 11 as part of a major overhaul.
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Here’s the full list of the 11 locations confirmed to close on August 11:
- Blackpool
- Chester
- Deansgate Locks, Manchester
- Edinburgh, Scotland
- Inverness, Scotland
- Leadenhall
- Loughborough
- Norwich
- Hockley, Nottingham
- Stafford
- King Street, Wigan
At the end of last year, it had 89 locations, including 46 Revolution Bars. It will now remain with 65 locations.
What happens in the Revolution?
In April, Revolution Bars Group announced plans for a major restructuring of the company.
This included imposing rent cuts on around 14 sites to make them more profitable and raising £12.5m from investors.
In March, a group of bars launched a formal sale process, citing a drop in the number of punters coming through their doors as the reason.
At the time, it was reported that about 30 interested parties had been interviewed.
However, the chain rejected the proposed offer from rival Nightcap and subsequently closed the official sale process.
At the time of closing the sale process, he warned creditors that the group would face administration if the restructuring plans were not supported.
The chain also suspended its shares from the London Stock Exchange in April after delaying the release of financial results.
Shares jumped 40% after the suspension was lifted.
At the start of the year, the chain said it had its best Christmas trading period in four years.
But in the same month, it added that it would “significantly reduce expenditure” and suspend all renovations, and said that dozens of its halls were still “at risk of closure”.
Today, the company said its bar trading in recent months was “undoubtedly impacted by the uncertainty and disruption of the restructuring process”, which has been a major focus of its board.
It also said it had met its target of around £3m in earnings, before measures such as tax and interest, by the end of June.
The group hopes its restructuring plan will put it back on a stronger financial footing, having been hit by the post-pandemic hit to the nightlife sector.
Revolution is just one of many hospitality companies that have buckled under the pressure of ever-increasing costs and less customer spending.
Rekom UK also closed a dozen of its sites earlier this year after having to call in administrators in January.
What is happening with the hospitality industry?
Many food and beverage chains have struggled recently as the cost of living has led to fewer people spending on dining out.
Businesses struggled to recover from the pandemic, only to be hit by huge energy bills and inflation.
Multiple chains were affected, resulting in the closure of branches of major brands such as Wetherspoons and Frankie & Benny.
Some chains did not survive, with Byron Burger falling into administration last year, with the owners saying it would result in the loss of more than 200 jobs.
Pizza giant Papa Johns is closing 43 of its stores soon.
Tasty, the owner of Wildwood, said it will close the locations as part of major restructuring plans.
The brand plans to close 20 loss-making restaurants after a “challenging” start to the year.
Stonegate, has sparked fears for its survival as it races to pay off its debts.
However, all is not doom and gloom for this sector.
Budget chains such as Wetherspoons continued to trade strongly as cheap pints continue to attract customers.
Why are retailers closing stores?
EMPTY shops have become an eyesore on many British high streets and often symbolize the decay of city centres.
The Sun’s business editor Ashley Armstrong explains why so many retailers are closing their doors.
In many cases, retailers are closing stores because they are no longer making the money they once were due to the rise of online shopping.
Falling store sales and rising staffing costs have made it more expensive to keep stores open. In some cases, retailers close shop and reopen a new store at the other end of the high street to show how the city has changed.
The problem is that when a big store closes, the footsteps can be heard across the local high street, putting more stores at risk of closing.
Retail parks are increasingly popular with shoppers looking for easy, free parking at a time when local governments have increased parking fees in cities.
Many retailers, including Next and Marks & Spencer, are closing high street stores and taking on larger stores in better performing shopping parks instead.
Boss Stuart Machin recently said that when he moved a tired store in Chesterfield to a new large store in a shopping park half a mile away, sales in the area rose by 103 per cent.
In some cases, stores are closed when a retailer fails, such as Wilko, Debenhams Topshop, Dorothy Perkins and Paperchase to name but a few.
What is increasingly common is when a chain fails, a rival retailer or private equity firm grabs the intellectual property rights so they can own the brand and sell it online.
They may open a few stores if there is customer demand, but there are rarely that many stores or in the same locations.
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