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Sam Finney pub closes

by Elizabeth Broomhall
9/ 4/2008

POPULAR bar and restaurant The Sam Finney, on Alderley Road, Wilmslow, has shut after The Laurel Pub Company, owner of several high-street bar brands, went into administration.

The bar was one of 60 across the country to be closed with the collapse of the firm.

Alastair Beveridge, a partner at Kroll’s corporate advisory and restructuring group, who appointed joint administrators said: "Low consumer confidence combined with the impact of the smoking ban has led to difficult trading conditions in the leisure sector."

Luton based Laurel operated a host of high street chains including La Tasca and Slug and Lettuce.

A new company, the Bay Restaurant Group, has declared an interest in acquiring selected assets from within the former Laurel group but as yet the Sam Finney has not been identified on its hit list.

Closure of the Sam Finney follows the shut-down of the popular bar and restaurant, the Brasserie on Water Lane, in January and later the rebranding of the former Hogs Head pub as Spanish restaurant La Tasca.

The Braz, Alderley Edge, closed in 2007 after going into voluntary receivership before being taken over by Panacea which is planning to reopen as a bar restaurant later this year.

Industry experts say the pub retail trade is suffering from the combined impact of the smoking ban, curfews and a clamp down on binge drinking in the area.

John Hutson, chief executive of pub group JD Wetherspoon was quoted on the BBC website as having said "the pursuit of branded restaurant chains by pub firms is the new fashion around the country.

He added: "With the end of smoking, there is an assumption that pub companies will need to have more reliance on food in the future."

Formerly the Rex Cinema The Sam Finney was named after teetotal magistrate Samuel Finney of Wilmslow who had a fierce reputation for sentencing youths hauled up before the bench for being inebriated.