Grillstock to be liquidated

The Grillstock smokehouse restaurant brand is to be liquidated after falling into administration last year.

All 23 employees have been made redundant after the drop in value of sterling, the inability to secure additional funds from investors and low ticket sales for its festival business all contributed to the company's demise.

Neil Bennett and Andy John, directors at Leonard Curtis Business Solutions Group, were appointed joint liquidators of Hedrick on 22 October. The company traded as US-style barbecue smokehouse Grillstock and had restaurants in Bristol, Bath and Leicester as well as a food stall in Bristol city centre.

On 17 November 2017, the predecessor business Grillstock was placed into administration and ceased to trade on 1 December 2017. At the same time, two of its directors bought the business and certain assets.

However, owing to a pre-emptive clause enforced by the Bath outlet's landlord, the increasing stock costs due to the loss of value of sterling as well as the inability to secure additional funds from investors, the Bristol-based company ceased trading on 12 October.

GS Festivals was incorporated in January and was a wholly owned subsidiary of Hedrick. The business had planned to host the Bristol food festival Grillstock this year, but cancelled it at short notice due to low ticket sales, which caused substantial damage to the brand.

Bennett said: "We will shortly undertake a marketing exercise for the assets of the company for the benefit of the liquidation."

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