Bedlam Brewery enters administration and readies sale

Bedlam Brewery has entered administration and is set for a pre-packaged sale of the business to one of its former directors.

In an email to shareholders, sent on 24 February, insolvency firm Begbie Traynor revealed that the Sussex-based brewery had entered administration on 17 February. The plan, it outlined,  was to “facilitate the rescue of a company as a going concern but if that is not reasonably practicable in all the circumstances, to implement the next best alternative in the interests of the company’s creditors”.

Additionally, Begbie Traynor stated: “Immediately following our appointment, we concluded a pre-packaged sale of the business and certain assets of the company” with the business being proposed to be sold to Renatus Brewing Company – a newly established firm set up by Bedlam director Robert Shepherd.

Bedlam Brewery, which was established in 2011 by a group of friends whilst enjoying Bedfest in the Albourne Estate Winery in Sussex, launched two rounds of crowdfunding during its existence with investment in 2016 enabling it to relocate and build a new brewery at the foot of the South Downs, in Plumpton, 10 miles north of Brighton.

Then, again, in 2019 Bedlam began its second round of crowdfunding setting a target of £600,000 with a stretch target of £800,000 to fund a four-year plan to expand the business nationwide and create a brewery tap in Brighton.

Begbie Traynor asked shareholders to complete a “proof of the debt form” for any money the company owes them but warned that those who are “uncertain how to claim should contact their VAT office or take professional advice”.

According to Begbie Traynor, its statement outlined how Bedlam Brewery “has, throughout its history brewed and sold beers with the first brewing commencing in May 2012” and “was originally financed by shareholder injections” and as Bedlam’s beer quickly gained a strong local following, it “was encouraged to start brewing commercially and therefore quickly outgrew its original premises” which led to the build of “a new eco-brewery at its current premises at St Helena Farm, Plumpton Green, East Sussex”.

According to the filing, Bedlam Brewery took occupation of these premises under a 10-year lease from May 2018, but admitted “notwithstanding the directors advising that the company had experienced a compound annual sales growth rate of 64% between the initial brews and 2021, it has been loss making since inception” and concluded: “We were advised of no interest, apart from that received from associated company Renatus.”

Those speculating on the deal have considered that Renatus Brewing Company – Renatus meaning ‘newborn’ in Latin –  could be a way for Shepherd to potentially continue the Bedlam beer brand as and continue to exist without the brewery location it had formerly established.

It is not yet clear as to whether the brand will maintain throughput for Ditchling-based pub The Bull where Bedlam has historically poured as the popular destination dining pub’s house beer, even following its recent sale to Youngs, or whether any of Bedlam’s staff will be kept on as part of the sale.