Faucet Inns Pub Co goes through pre-pack deal

Faucet Inn Pub Co, which until recently operated more than 20 pubs in London and the Home Counties, is understood to have gone through a pre-pack administration process.

A number of the group's pubs have apparently closed, including the Nanobyte bar in Soho, Central London, which was part of a package of pubs Faucet bought from Broken Foot Inns in 2008 for £1.45m.

Other pubs in the group's portfolio believed to have closed or which have been taken out of the company's ownership are Chandler's, on Ealing Broadway, and the Fat Controller pub in Harrow, Middlesex.

Neither the company or accountancy firm Baker Tilly, which handled the pre-pack, had returned calls at the time of writing.

It is understood that Steve Cox, the entrepreneur who founded the company in 2000, has bought a number of the sites from the administrators.

Faucet's annual accounts for the 12 months to May 30, 2009, filed with Companies House, show turnover dipped 1.3 per cent to £6.85m, while the group posted a pre-tax loss of £57,000, against the previous year's profit of £151,000.

As at May 30 last year its trade creditors were owed £1.06m.

According to Faucet Inns' website it now operates 18 pubs including the Pillars of Hercules in Soho and the Essex Serpent in Covent Garden, down from 27 at the time of the Broken Foot deal.