Little Gems Country Dining restructures to fund expansion
Small operator Little Gems Country Dining has undergone a restructure and transferred its assets to a new, and as yet unnamed, company in order to fund expansion plans.
The new company, which will be headed by Little Gems managing director Steve Wilkins, has bought up all three pubs, including that of its only freehold, the Howard Arms in Ilmington near Stratford-Upon-Avon, which it paid £1.1m for.
The newly established Howards Arms Ltd, a subsidiary of the new parent company, now owns the pub under the deal which was carried out by Davis Coffer Lyons.
The leasehold of the Swan Inn in Milton Keynes Village and the Chequers Inn in Weston Turville, Aylesbury are also now owned by the new company.
"The bottom line is that we have the same management and we still own the same sites, but we have emerged with no bank debt," said Wilkins. "Our bank, HBOS was not prepared to provide any more funds and so we were not able to do what we wanted, which was to expand."
The money to buy the assets was raised through shareholders and personal investment. HBOS had recently withdrawn debt funding of around £2m.
Wilkins said the new company was actively searching for new freehold sites in the northern Home Counties.
