London craft brewer Fourpure has applied for a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) to continue trading as it struggles to meet existing obligations to creditors.
The brewery, owned by In Good Company Brewing, has hired FRP Advisory as an insolvency practitioner. FRP made the CVA application on its behalf on 26 March.
Approached by The Grocer, Steve Cox, CEO and co-owner of In Good Company insisted the CVA application was “a short term move to future proof the business”.
He added In Good Company still had “a huge amount of belief in the Fourpure brand, the people behind it and the fantastic beers Fourpure has been making for over a decade”.
“This move is about taking decisive action sooner rather than later, and facing issues head on to protect the business for the future,” Cox said. “We are working hard to ensure continuity of supply during this time, and that this does not impact customer agreements. We want to ensure that Fourpure continues forward with as little disruption as possible.”
A CVA is an insolvency process which allows for unmanageable company debts to be paid back over a period of time, typically three to five years.
If its application is approved, FRP will work out how much of its debts Fourpure can afford to repay before putting the arrangement to creditors for a vote.
Unless three-quarters of creditors (by debt value) agree to the arrangement, however, the brewery could face voluntary liquidation.
No further detail on the extent of Fourpure’s debts was forthcoming from In Good Company. The company’s accounts for the year ended 31 December 2022 are currently overdue, according to Companies House.
Fourpure was founded in Bermondesy, south-east London, by Tom and Dan Lowe in 2013. The brewery was snapped up by Australasian brewing giant Lion in July 2018.
Nine months later, Lion added Huddersfield’s Magic Rock Brewing Co to its UK roster, rolling the two businesses into a combined Lion Little World Beverages unit.
However, the Kirin-owned Lion subsequently elected to pull back from the UK, selling both breweries to In Good Company for an undisclosed sum in August 2022.
Cox said Magic Rock and “other entities in the In Good Company Group” were unaffected by Fourpure’s CVA application.
Fourpure’s beers are currently stocked with retailers including Tesco, Asda, Waitrose and Ocado.
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