Brewery closes its doors
Bradford Brewery has closed its tap room doors and the overall business has “run out of money” this week, ten months after a major shareholder exited the business.
A spokesman said: “Bradford Brewery has run out of money and has entered an accelerated sales process. Either the shares or business and assets can be purchased. The minimum level of future investment required is estimated to be £50,000. It is a well regarded brewer selling popular ales such as “Hockney Pale” and “Northern Soul”.
“It has its own Bradford City Centre retail outlet “The Exchange” as well as the Tap Bar at the brewery. It supplies pub chains as well as wholesalers and other independent pubs and retail outlets generating a turnover in excess of £300,000. It has recently been awarded the Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) Food Safety & Quality Scheme certificate which will open a much bigger market of outlets for its products.”
In August last year, the business – which was founded in 2015 – reopened the Exchange Ale House, in Market Street, Bradford, as a Bradford Brewery bar, after taking on the lease from Trust Inns.
The pub had been closed for four years and had undergone a complete refurbishment to give it a new lease of life.
Bradford Brewery website
The firm’s brewery was based on Rawson Road. This week, it has sold of all of its stock and the website now states it has closed.
In October last year, Bradford Brewery purchased and cancelled the shareholding held by its former director Matthew Halliday.
The company was then owned by the other seven original shareholders including directors Phillip Ogg and Mark Lister, who were overseeing the running of the company, plus three new investors.
Halliday ran the brewery on Rawson Road through to its launch in February 2015, until he left to pursue other interests. The transaction ended Halliday’s links with the company.
Ogg and Lister then restructured the business, which they said last year had a steady increase in wholesale beer sales. At the time, they said they were focusing on other growth plans, including the re-launch of the Made of Bradford merchandise range.
The Leeds based business turnaround firm, Chamberlain & Co have been instructed by the directors to assist them in the sales process.
