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Black Sheep Brewery reveals why it shut York pub

Mon 3 Jul

The Last Drop Inn. Photographs: Richard McDougall

Mon 3 Jul 2023  @ 12:10pm
YorkMix
News

There was no way to make a York city centre pub trade profitably, its owners the Black Sheep Brewery claimed today.

And that is why it was shut, alongside two of the brewery’s pubs in Leeds.

Black Sheep, now owned by investment firm the Breal Group, closed the Last Drop Inn on Colliergate on Friday.

In a statement, the brewery said the pubs – including The Tap & Kitchen and Mr Foleys in Leeds – had failed to return to pre-Covid levels and weren’t trading profitably.

But it didn’t say why they were shut so abruptly, without notice, last Friday.

Last Drop manager Alex Higginson and his staff were “beyond upset” with the closure, and with “no way of saying goodbye to our amazing, lovely customers”.

One member of staff told YorkMix how they were “forced to quickly collect our belongings” and “were escorted off the property”.

We have asked the brewery why the closures were so sudden, and will update the story if we receive a response.

Black Sheep Brewery in Masham. Photograph: Kreuzschnabel on Wikipedia

Black Sheep Brewery was taken over by the Breal Group on 26 May. Here’s what the brewery said in full.

“We are grateful to the staff at all these pubs, who have worked extremely hard over recent years to try to bring their pubs back to pre-covid levels.

“Despite their very best efforts, this has not materialised. There will also be a small number of redundancies, associated with the company’s retail arm, at the head office in Masham.

“Having recently conducted an extensive review of our business, we have explored every angle to try to keep these locations trading profitably, but without success.

“Unfortunately, the only avenue left for us was the closure of these premises. It is always the last resort for us to make redundancies, and we are saddened to see such dedicated colleagues leaving us, at this time.”

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