A popular pub that was forced to close three months ago has gone bust with a whopping $1.2 million debt, it has now been revealed.
The Carringbush Hotel, located in Abbotsford, a northwestern suburb of Melbourne, closed its doors for good on June 2.
Two days later the company was declared bankrupt. This month, insolvency firm CJG Advisory published a report revealing the true extent of the pub’s demise.
According to the report seen by the location, there was only 63 cents in the account when it went bankrupt. news.com.au.
The pub owes $1.28 million to creditors, including $411,000 to the Australian Taxation Office.
The liquidators have warned that it is unlikely that creditors will get their money back.
The Carringbush Hotel underwent a major renovation in 2019 but was hit hard by the Covid pandemic, according to curator Matthew Gollant.
“Following the pandemic, disputes arose between the company and the landlord of the property, resulting in several VCAT cases being brought against the company,” Mr Gollant said.
The Carringbush Hotel, located in Melbourne’s northwestern suburb of Abbotsford, closed its doors for good on June 2
‘Given the rising costs of supplies, the directors believed that the company was likely to become loss-making and took steps to liquidate the company.’
Mr Gallant said it was possible the pub had gone bankrupt since 30 June 2022.
“Since then, the company has incurred even more debt, totaling about $480,000,” he said.
The hotel lost $460,000 between July 2021 and June 2023.
The landlord of the property also claimed that there was damage and that he was owed $40,000.
Liam Matthews, 47, co-owner of the Carringbush Hotel, said the pub has closed due to the “outrageous” cost of “everything” in the hospitality industry.
To keep the pub alive, Mr Matthews calculated he would have to raise the price of the pub’s most popular beer, Mountain Goat Lager, from $15 to $20 a pint.
Mr Matthews previously told AFR that wages for the pub’s 20 staff had increased by eight percent since 2022.
The pub also saw its energy bill rise from $1,500 in 2020 to around $2,000 a month and also noticed insurance costs increasing.
Mr Matthews added that the pub also had to pay a delivery fee of $10 per barrel of beer, a charge that did not exist before the pandemic.
According to a bankruptcy report after the liquidation in June, the pub had just 63p in its bank account at the time of the collapse.