Struggling brewer Adnams has said that hospitality firms are ‘receiving no positive support whatsoever from the Government’ as its debt pile remains ‘unsustainable’.
Simon Townsend, the interim chair of the Ghost Ship maker, said that hospitality businesses were ‘facing a number of headwinds’ this year, including ‘questionable economic growth’, increases in employment costs and ‘unreliable consumer confidence’.
At her first Budget last October, Chancellor Rachel Reeves whacked the sector with increases in employers’ National Insurance Contributions and the national minimum wage, as well as a package of tax hikes.
‘Businesses such as Adnams are receiving no positive support whatsoever from the Government, despite our role as an important employer at the heart of the communities which we serve,’ Townsend said, adding that the group was currently pursuing a ‘self-help story’.
Pub operators and brewers have called on the Government to help them through offering a VAT cut on food and drinks sold in hospitality, as well as by reforming the business rates system, which they say would level the playing field with online giants.
But their calls have fallen on deaf ears amid warnings of job losses and venue closures following the Chancellor’s tax-hiking Budget.
Bitter: Adnams interim chair Simon Townsend (pictured) said hospitality businesses were struggling in the wake of Rachel Reeves’s budget tax hikes
Cost pressures have added to Adnams’ woes as it said its indebtedness was ‘unsustainable’, even as its debt pile fell from £15.9million to £15.3million over the year.
It will start selling assets to slash borrowings, it said, after reportedly deciding against a sale of its business last year.
It narrowed losses to £2.7million over the year to December 31, compared to £4million the year before.
And bosses hailed signs of a turnaround, as sales rose 3 per cent to £68.1million.
But it said that the sales of products in shops, including Southwold Bitter and Double Ghost pale ale, fell as ‘trading conditions on the High Street remained challenging’.
The beleaguered business replaced former boss Andy Wood with Jenny Hanlon last year, the first female chief executive in the 150-year-old firm’s history.
The brewer hopes to boost its fortunes by focusing on maximising the sales of its best-known Ghost Ship and Southwold Bitter drinks.
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