Unpaid bills put paid to Cobra Beer

Mounting unpaid bills were behind Bedford brewer Wells & Youngs' (W&Y) decision to cease production of Cobra lager three weeks ago.

Cobra Beer, the brainchild of serial entrepreneur Lord Bilimoria, was bought out of administration last week via a pre-pack deal.

The new owner is a joint venture majority owned by Molson Coors and a stake owned by Bilimoria. Cobra went into administration with debts of more than £70m. It is understood the brewing of the liquid is currently taking place at Camerons Brewery in Hartlepool and at The Palm Brewery in Belgium, but will shortly be brought into Molson Coors' Burton-Upon-Trent plant.

In a statement, W&Y said: "We've been brewing Cobra here since 1997, when Lord Bilimoria asked us to brew it for the UK.

"We have had a long and harmonious trading relationship with our friends at Cobra Beer, but recently the overdue payments had mounted up and Cobra was unable to pay. We have now stopped brewing Cobra.

"This will have minimal impact as Cobra beer was a very small proportion of our overall capacity.

"We wish Cobra Beer all the best in the new company chaired by Lord Bilimoria, and we will now turn to our credit insurers for settlement of the debts."

The amount owed to the Bedford brewer is believed to be a seven figure sum.

W&Y had sought a winding up order of the company in preference to a voluntary administration deal going ahead, at the request of underwriters of its credit insurers.