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Gin Festival Limited enters administration as 20 events are cancelled
West Yorkshire-based events company Gin Festival Limited has fallen into administration after efforts to find a buyer for the business failed, meaning that 20 shows around the country have been cancelled and 27 members of staff face redundancy.
The company, based in Keighley, entered administration on 5 July with immediate effect, meaning that festivals scheduled from July until November have been cancelled.
In all, 20 gin festivals have been axed in locations including Norwich, Sandown, Worcester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Lincoln, Portsmouth, London, Wakefield, St Albans, Sheffield, Oxford, Edinburgh and Leicester, while all 27 members of staff have been made redundant.
The company has appointed Julian Pitts and Nick Reed of Leeds-based insolvency practitioners Begbies Traynor as its administers.
On its website, Begbies Traynor has stated that Gin Festival Limited will not be in position to reimburse ticket-holders. Those who have purchased tickets are advised to contact their credit/debit card provider or Paypal. According to Pitts, approximately 20,000 tickets have been sold for upcoming events.
Gin Festival Limited, which runs the GinFestival.com website, was founded in 2013. It began to run into financial difficulties after “heavily investing” in the expansion of its website, developing its own online ticket sales facility and creating an e-commerce business selling craft gins.
Directors of Gin Festival Limited, Marie and James (Jym) Harris, posted the following statement on the company website and social media.
“It is with deep regret that we have had to take the decision to put the Gin Festival business into administration on Thursday 5 July 2018. We tried everything we could to rescue the business so that it would not come to this but unfortunately, we have not been able to do so.
“We know this will be disappointing to you and we apologise for any inconvenience caused. We want to thank all our amazing customers/suppliers for their support over the years.
“After 5 years of hard work and passion, this was not a decision we have taken lightly and personally this will mean we lose our home and everything we have worked hard to build.
“We ask that you may be able to provide us with your compassion and understanding at this extremely difficult time for us”.
Julian Pitts of Begbies Traynor added: “It’s a huge shame that Gin Festival.com has been placed in administration. The loss of jobs is always extremely disappointing and in this case approximately 20,000 tickets have also been sold for forthcoming events which will not be reimbursed as part of the administration process.
“Anyone who has purchased tickets for any of the events organised by GinFestival.com would be best advised to check with their credit or debit card provider as to whether they may be covered for the loss under the Chargeback system.
“Our aim was, of course, to find a purchaser for the business as a going concern in order to safeguard the jobs, but unfortunately, despite our efforts, this did not prove possible.
“We are now in the process of realising what assets we can in order to achieve the best possible returns for creditors”.
I feel bad for the guys that are losing their jobs, that’s sad. Is the Gin Bubble finally bursting? I think not. What has happened here comes as no surprise to me, unfortunately. Ignoring the fact that this could be a simple but catastrophic cash flow disaster, I have always thought that the concept was wrong in the first place. For me it was just a gin bar, a really big gin bar, but just a gin bar. There was precious little opportunity to taste with the makers, or even to taste neat before tonic was added in a lot of cases. It’s a shame because it did give a number of producers some worthwhile volume I’m sure, but ultimately it was not the best or most interesting event out there featuring gin in my experience, and I have a lot of experience. Sorry it didn’t work out.