Search for buyer for gastropub
ADMINISTRATORS have been called in at an awardwinning Northumberland gastropub after being enlisted by a creditor in Australia.
Hopes are high that new owners can be found for St Mary’s Inn, at Stannington, near Morpeth, where joint administrators have been appointed, six years after it first opened.
St Mary’s Inn first opened in 2014 following a £1.5m refurbishment of the former administration offices of an Edwardian hospital.
However, the firm decided to close the pub in May 2017, saying the opening had come “ahead of its time” because the rest of the planned Stannington Park – with homes, community centre and sports facilities – was taking so long to be built and not giving the pub the chance to flourish.
It reopened in the summer of 2018, having seen the new estate develop, with 200
houses and another 100 set to be built in the immediate pipeline, creating 31 jobs.
St Mary’s Inn soon developed a strong reputation as a gastropub, drawing in diners from around the region, and soon after reopening was given five stars by the AA following an inspection.
The popular pub with rooms was also named the best in the North East at the 2019 National Pub & Bar Awards, taking the title as one of 94 pubs shortlisted for 15 regional awards.
However, the arrival of the pandemic plunged the business back into turmoil along with thousands of others within the hospitality industry in the North East and wider UK.
Now administrators Michael Bowell and Dermot Coakley of Guildford-based WSM MBI Coakley LLP – appointed on November 20 in the High Court of Justice Business and Property Courts in Newcastle – are seeking a buyer for the business.
Mr Bowell said all staff have been made redundant and all employees have been paid in full. He said the business was closed by the coronavirus pandemic at the start of the year but had briefly been able to open following the end of lockdown. However, it closed again when the region entered new restrictions in October.
Mr Bowell said: “In the fullness of time, this is an opportunity for someone to pick up. It’s a well built location with several hundred dwellings now built around it, in terms of having people on the doorstep to draw in, and it is a destination place too.”