Tattershall Castle reports £48.4m loss

Tattershall Castle Group (TCG), the managed pub company owned by private equity firm Alchemy and headed by David Ford, received a further £15m in loans from Alchemy after its most recent financial year when it recorded a loss of £48.4m. Turnover for the company dropped to £105,330,000 in the year ended 31 August 2008 compared to £116,421,000 the year before.

The losses at TCG included an impairment charge of £27.5m. Tattershall restructured at the start of its current financial year, transferring 114 of its pubs to new legal entities covering distint market segments - Bars, Inns, Pubs and Taverns. TCG Acquisitions is left to run 36 of the original sites in the wake of the restructure.

A company statement said: "This new structure is proving to be operationally effective giving better management focus on each market segment. "The operating loss from continuing operations for the year was £3.4m (2007: £1.8m). "During the year the company has benefited from the waiver by group companies of debt totalling £46.7m." During its most recent financial year, the company completed trhe refurbishment of 17 sites and completed the planned disposal of six sites.

The company had nine sites permanently closed after deciding it was uneconomic to trade them. A statement to Companies House added: "The results reflect the extremely challenging environment within the market sector aa whole with the competitive influence of aggressive pricing by supermarkets of beers, wines and spirits being exacerbated by government determination to increase alcohol duty by RPI plus 2%. "The smoking ban, which came into effect in 2007 also had a more significant adverse impact on the business than was originally expected." The company reported average weekly sales per site were £14,100 compared to £14,800 the year before.

Rent to sales stood at 18.9% compared to 17.7% in 2007 and Ebitda to sales before head office costs stood at 5.8% compared to 7.4% in 2007. TCG said it had taken steps to reduce costs and strengthen operational management in the current year. The additional £15m loan from Alchemy is repayable in September 2011 while Anglo Irish Bank has extended its existing facilities to 31 August 2010. TCG was formed with the £177m acquisition of 178 managed pubs from Spirit Group in 2005.