New South Wales brewer Barons collapses as creditors call last drinks

Liquidators have been appointed to ambitious New South Wales microbrewer Barons, after creditors ruled out sinking more money into the loss-making business and the company failed in its push to have their beers sold in pubs.

Geoff Reidy, co-founder of specialist insolvency accounting firm Rodgers Reidy, is looking after Barons Brewing Group, which is in administration, and Barons Brewing, which is in liquidation.

Reidy says by the time of his appointment this week there was basically only a shell left, with no brewery assets to take over and intellectual property already sold off. The company is not trading and had no employees at Reidy’s appointment.

The main creditor, director Patrick Clarke, is believed to be owed about $4.5 million. The Tax Office is believed to be another creditor, although Reidy says the ATO wouldn’t be a main cause of the demise but merely a “symptom of losses”.

Stressing he is new to the business, Reidy says that financiers withdrew support from the business after a deed of company arrangement was signed last year but failed to deliver hoped-for results.

“I’m going to guess that at that time, the company had plans for ongoing greatness, if you like, and people pumped more money into it, and those plans never came off. And after sinking more money into a loss-making company, the financier has said, ‘enough is enough,'” Reidy told SmartCompany.

Reidy plans to deal with the remaining creditors, conduct an inquiry and report back to creditors on what happened with the company.

According to its website, Barons Brewing is the fastest-growing independent beer company in Australia, and its brands were sold across North America, Asia and the UK.

Reidy says while its products had been sold in Australian supermarkets such as IGA, a push to have the beer sold on tap in pubs had not worked.

“They certainly tried to get in pubs, being on tap and become a more mainstream sort of beer, but this was met with limited success,” Reidy says.

“Certainly as a beer drinker, Barons wasn’t really a label you’d remember.”

The Woollahra-based company says it sells “premium beers at competitive prices” and “niche brands to appeal to a wide range of drinkers”.

The appointment follows a report in trade publication The Shout in July saying the company was “restructuring” following the decision to sack director and managing director Adam Flohm after less than a year in the role.