Wells & Co not collecting commercial rent for April and May

Rent and service charges will be reviewed on a regular basis in a bid to help decide the best way forward.

A spokesperson for Wells & Co said: “Despite the welcome measures put in place by the Government in recent weeks, we want to make sure we provide as much support as possible for our pub partners and, as such, won’t be collecting any commercial rent payments for April and May.

“We will be reviewing rent and service charges on a regular basis thereafter to determine the most appropriate course of action moving forward.”

Strong position

The spokesperson added: “The welfare of our employees and the financial security is, as ever, of the utmost importance for us and we hope in continuing to fully support our partners, we will be in a strong position come the end of these challenging weeks and months.”

This comes after the brewer-operator announced on 18 March, it was deferring rent for three months to ease financial pressures.

At that time, the business was also looking into other measures it could offer to help its operators amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Employee welfare

In March, Wells & Co managing director Peter Wells said: “It’s hard to remember a recent time that pubs have faced so much adversity and as such, we felt it was important to support our pub partners in a meaningful way.

“We wanted to move fast in offering reassurance so we spoke to our partners to let them know we will be deferring rent for a period of three months to help ease financial pressures.

“It has never been more important to come together and support the hospitality industry and for Wells & Co, the welfare of our employees and the financial security of our pub partners is our number one priority. We are working hard to investigate further measures to alleviate the ongoing situation.”