High Wood Brewery faces liquidation
The company, which employed 50 people, was known for its Tom Wood's Ales. It hit problems with its wholesale distribution operation, according to MD Tom Wood.
Insolvency expert Charles Ranby-Gorwood of CRG Insolvency was appointed the liquidator of the firm, which is valued at £600,000.
He told FoodManufacture.co.uk: “It was unlikely that the wholesaling business could be sold as a going concern, which is one of the key reasons why the business was put into liquidation not administration.”
A number of interested parties
He said there were a number of interested parties who may go on to bid for parts of the business.
The most likely scenario was that the brewery would be acquired by one buyer and its lorries and other vehicles sold to another, or sold on piecemeal, he added.
If the brewery operation restarted then around five jobs could be re-instated, Ranby-Gorwood said, since most of the 50 jobs lost related to the sales and distribution side, which was unlikely to continue.
High Wood Brewery’s wholesale operation accounted for a large proportion of its turnover, and distributed a variety of drinks products for other manufacturers.
Tom Wood set up the brewery in 1995, initially producing around 5,000 pints of beer a week, using malt and barley grown on the family farm at Melton Ross.
