Grey Archer goes into liquidation

Grey Archer, the pioneering business aimed at bringing publicans up-to-date with 21st century technology, has gone into liquidation.

From 2pm today (Monday, July 29), the company ceased trading when directors initiated liquidation proceedings with immediate effect.

The move, which has resulted in about 120 redundancies, comes after Nomura withdrew funds from the company on Friday (July 23). Nomura had committed to invest £30m and its exit put Grey Archer in an "impossible position" to trade.

Grey Archer was designed to improve publicans' bottom line through on line deals, opportunities to order goods on line and savings on items like EpoS and utility bills.

To enable this, the company supplied publicans free of charge with a personal computer, printer, training and customer service support.

Patrick Dardis, Grey Archer's business development and marketing director, told thePublican.com today that the initial deal aimed to exploit the opportunities within the Nomura pub estate, including Inn Partnership, Unique and Voyager, before expanding into the wider pub market.

"Nomura sold its pub businesses much earlier than expected which did not give us time to build in terms of scale. Nomura no longer had a pub company and, therefore, no need for Grey Archer.

"It is with deep regret that the directors have been forced to take this action."