Stafford shops closing - Turning into a ghost town?

Mudgie

Well-Known Forumite
Owners of the Tavern are P.A.G. Investments Ltd. The interior of the property is in such poor conditions that the licensing conditions included the requirements that various parts of the building had to be sealed off so that no-one could access them for safety reasons.

P.A.G Investments - https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/09213308
Not many people will have heard of P.A.G. Investments Ltd. I hadn't.
It was all much more straightforward when the great majority of pubs were owned by brewers and we knew it was a Bass Charrington pub, but it's been quite chaotic for the last thirty years with most of them taken on by property companies usually masquerading as pub companies.
I blame the Beer Orders of 1989.
 

LLFC

Well-Known Forumite
Not many people will have heard of P.A.G. Investments Ltd. I hadn't.
It was all much more straightforward when the great majority of pubs were owned by brewers and we knew it was a Bass Charrington pub, but it's been quite chaotic for the last thirty years with most of them taken on by property companies usually masquerading as pub companies.
I blame the Beer Orders of 1989.
How long has this place been closed? Just looked at Companies House and this looks like a SPV setup to hold the property. From the accounts, liabilities are greater than assets (which from the sound of it are probably overstated), it has never made any money and has an increasing level of creditors which is roughly equivalent to the losses it is racking up (which sounds like not paying interest off). In my opinion no money to pay for the repairs and just a question of time until creditors force the issue and take a hit. Sad state of affairs.
 

Noah

Well-Known Forumite
It was all much more straightforward when the great majority of pubs were owned by brewers and we knew it was a Bass Charrington pub

Or nowadays it is owned by the executors of Lord Tomnoddy who have put it into the hands of a property management company who have leased it to a large pubco/brewery who have leased it to a small pubco with a chain of half a dozen leased pubs who have set up an operating company for each pub and each operating company has put a manager into the pub. And sometimes it is more complicated than that.
 

Tilly

Well-Known Forumite
Or nowadays it is owned by the executors of Lord Tomnoddy who have put it into the hands of a property management company who have leased it to a large pubco/brewery who have leased it to a small pubco with a chain of half a dozen leased pubs who have set up an operating company for each pub and each operating company has put a manager into the pub. And sometimes it is more complicated than that.


 

markpa12003

Well-Known Forumite
I still find it odd that the new owners killed off Thornton's , the business could have survived if they let the workers decorate any chocolate people bought in , which they wanted to do and was being considered.

Also they probably should have focused more on the ice cream side of the business.

I just don't understand why the new owners didn't want their chocolates sold along the Thornton's range, surely it would have been better to have them both sold together.

As it , looks like the remaining stores are probably only running till their leases are up, even the web team looks like they were fired mid March.

For my wedding Thorntons made personalised chocolate displays for the tables and provided the wedding favours.

The Stafford store had never had a request to provide any such service for a wedding before. I felt at the time that it was a missed opportunity for them because we spent a substantial amount of money with them and all the guests loved the idea.
 
Last edited:

joshua

Well-Known Forumite
Poundland closing some stores, expected to see stafford being one of those stores, but not yet!
Thriving market town, wahoo!

Temporary hibernation, staff on furlough, no stafford stores affected
nothing-to-see-here-move-along.jpg
 

Tumble weed

Well-Known Forumite
I was surprised Stafford survived, it's in an awkward place to get to with the centre itself being closed, must be doing better trade than expected !
 
Top