Vinoteca files for protection from creditors

Vinoteca has filed for protection from its creditors, suggesting that the wine bar group could be on the brink of collapse.

The business runs five sites across London in Bloomberg Arcade, King’s Cross, Marylebone, Farringdon and Chiswick.

Vinoteca will fall into insolvency if it cannot restructure its debts within 10 days.

The company was first launched in 2005 by hospitality stalwarts Elena Ares, Brett Woonton and Charlie Young. Vinoteca is now run by New Zealand-born Woonton, whose experience spans the likes of Enotria Wine Cellars and Liberty Wines, and Young, with experience working in London, the Channel Islands, the West Indies, Germany, France and Australia.

News of Vinoteca filing for protection from its creditors comes months after the business decided to close its only site outside of London, less than a year after launching.

Vinoteca Birmingham, based on the ground floor of Two Chamberlain Square on the Paradise estate at the heart of the city’s business district, launched just a week before the start of the 2022 Commonwealth Games last July. But the owners announced the site’s closure on 27 May after struggling in the face of the post-pandemic working landscape and the economic challenges of the past 12 months.

The company said in a statement: “The move is in answer to difficult trading conditions during and post-pandemic which has had a huge impact on leisure operators across the country.

“The challenges of a much-changed economic landscape over the past 12 months of rising costs, inflation, spiralling energy charges and regular train strikes have proved too great for a site which Vinoteca had hoped to continue to grow over the coming years.”

the drinks business has reached out to Vinoteca for comment.