The terrible year for Australia’s pub operators continues, with New South Wales hotel group Big Bert, formerly owned by publican David Wakefield, collapsing into receivership.
The group owned four pubs in regional New South Wales and the ACT: the Charles Hotel at Fairy Meadow near Wollongong, the Royal Mail in Braidwood, the Steelworks Hotel in Port Kembla and the Port Kembla Hotel.
Sources say the bank debts associated with the company are around $15 million.
Receiver Joseph Hayes of McGrathNicol is now in charge of the company. He has installed new management at the pubs and is continuing to trade before a sale.
“They are trading satisfactorily and we intend to market the hotels as soon as possible,” he told SmartCompany this morning.
The latest pub group collapse underlines how much pressure the hotel sector is under at present. A slew of pub groups have fallen over this year, including Tom Hedley’s pub empire based in North Queensland, Sydney’s Landmark Leisure and Melbourne’s Cornerstone Hotels Group.
Many of these operators were caught out with too much debt when the economy turned, and have been unable too keep the banks at bay.
However, recent sales of pubs leased to the Woolworths-backed pub company ALE show that investors are still keen to buy hotel properties, providing the tenant is strong.
James was the editor and publisher of SmartCompany and LeadingCompany for five years. He is now the Australian Financial Review‘s companies & markets editor, and a former BRW editor.
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