A landlord has lost ‘tens of thousands of pounds’ and could be forced to leave a popular Shrewsbury pub after a dispute with his brewery, it has been claimed.
Martin Atkinson, 45, publican at the Heathgates pub, on Whitchurch Road, says that Punch Taverns has reneged on a verbal agreement.
Martin Atkinson
The landlord went to the company earlier this year after struggling financially. He claims he was advised to hand in his notice – while a financial package to help him stay afloat was arranged.
He said: “I went to them and said we were struggling financially and we had been ploughing our own money in so they came back to us and said we could hand our notice in – but that they would put a financial package together for us and if it was good enough we could always retract the notice.”
Mr Atkinson said things had started to look up but when another person became interested in the pub, Punch Taverns went back on its agreement meaning he will have to leave the pub in January – despite putting thousands of his own money into the business.
“The issue is the underhand way they are doing this because the long and short of it is that they’ve lied to us and it has left us in a bad situation financially. We will survive but we are out of pocket and it’s all been done so secretly.
“They went back on a verbal agreement which was retracted as soon as someone else had shown interest. I’ve lost tens of thousands of pounds and I can’t even try to get another job because I am stuck here notice wise now until January,” added Mr Atkinson.
Earlier this year he claims he also lost £3,000 of his own money in just five weeks after taking ownership of the Six Bells pub, on Ditherington Road, with Punch Taverns. The Heathgates was empty for around eight months before the pub was taken over by Mr Atkinson three and a half years ago, and it now has its own darts, dominos, pool and football teams.
Leila Maia, spokesperson for Punch Taverns, said: “We continue to invest over £1.6 million every month in financial support for our licensees to help them find new ways of improving their business. We clearly have a duty to make sure the financial support goes to the licensees who need it most.
“On this occasion, our licensee at Heathgates didn’t qualify for financial support and, as a result, the licensee took the decision to terminate his agreement. It is disappointing that the partnership has broken down but we remain committed to keeping the pub open and we already received interest from potentially new licensees.”
by David Seadon