Heaven & Hell nightclub chain owner Entrepreneurial Leisure has become the first casualty of the new licensing laws after losing trade to pubs caused it to lurch into insolvency, the Morning Advertiser has learnt.
Peter Clarke, who founded Entrepreneurial Leisure in 1997, has admitted later hours for pubs in the wake of the new regime had taken their toll on trade.
However, Clarke has won £2.5m of financial backing from Scottish & Newcastle, the company's biggest creditor, to buy back three of his Heaven & Hell sites - in Blackburn, Barnsley and Hull - from receivers.
They will be run by a new company called Shelrick Limited, which will be run from the Entrepreneurial Leisure headquarters in Blackpool.
Other creditors of the Heaven & Hell chain stand to receive nothing. Clarke is understood to have sold Heaven & Hell venues in Huddersfield, Leeds and Blackpool prior to the insolvency.
It is understood that Clarke plans to convert the sites he has acquired from receivers to a new brand - Terminal One. The Heaven and Hell club in Stockport has been taken back by its landlord and is no longer open.
Entrepreneurial Leisure employed a total of 300 people and had a turnover of around the £10m mark at its height. Andrew Dick and Steven Williams, of Begbies Traynor, Preston have been appointed receivers to deal with the group's affairs.
Mr Williams said: "Although a deal has been done to satisfy the major creditor, other creditors will not have their outstanding balances settled."
