The Barge Inn at Honeystreet

[DaveC]

It seems that the Barge Inn at Honeystreet on the K & A has closed, a little over two years since it was "rescued" by the villagers. Link to local paper report http://www.gazetteandherald.co.uk/news/towns/marlboroughheadlines/9999048.Jobs_lost_as_the_Barge_Inn_at_Honeystreet_closes/

 

Dave

[Morat]

VAT eh? There's not much they'll be able to do about that. How embarrassing and sad for all concerned

[luctor et emergo]

£100 vat bill? Can I swap?

[Myself]

Was a nice pub, shame its gone

[GSer]

I passed it perhaps 8 times this summer, each time the garden was packed, as was the car park and the event field?

 

Its one thing a business going down the pan due to lack of custom, but there must be many many publicans that would give an arm for that kind of custom.

 

Perhaps it will reopen again soon with a restructured managment. I do hope so.

[the grinch]

ok if they owe £100k in vat that means a turnover of £500k based on 2 years trading thats £250k per year that means £4,800 a week profit after wages, utilities, beer and food is payed for! hardly likely in such a small village pub.

 

something does not add up!!

 

just to add our weekly turnover at the pub was £2K a week with occassional weeks at £3k after rent and purchases we were losing £200 approx a week

Edited October 22, 2012 by hamsterfan

[dmr]

The Barge Inn is (or was) not really a typical "small village pub" I think quite a few people would regard it more as a "centre of the universe".

 

The figures do sound high but it could be fully booked for Sunday lunch, have a busy garden at lunch times, and evenings in the summer, a good set of regular drinkers, and very busy live music nights. Also a small amount of tourists and UFO/corn circle types, plus boaters of all types!.

The Barge made a lot of people happy and it will be very sad if it does not re-open.

 

Its where I taught the dog to be a "well behaved pub dog" and I was hoping to spent a while there this winter.

 

......Dave

[David Schweizer]

My wife and her friend had a lunchtime meal there the weekend before last, but they did comment that the large group of bikers, making an unruly row must put a lot of visitors off. They had to move to the other end of the bar because they could not hear themselves speak over the noise

Edited October 22, 2012 by David Schweizer

[George94]

It's neither particularly small, nor really a village pub because Honeystreet isn't really a village, and certainly has never provided the custom for the pub.

 

It's a pub with a good summer trade and not much in winter, though, as stated, they could sometimes sell a lot of Sunday lunches.

 

£250k divided by 52 means takings of £4,800 BEFORE paying wages, food, rent, etc..

 

Astonishing, if true, that they didn't trouble themselves to register for VAT.

 

Very sad to see it go.

[GSer]

My wife and her friend had a lunchtime meal there the weekend before last, but they did comment that the large group of bikers, making an unruly row must put a lot of visitors off. They had to move to the other end of the bar because they could not hear themselves speak over the noise

 

 

For as long as i've known the barge, its been a lively place, and bikers have been just a part of its clientelle all that time, along with many other walks of life, hippies, new age travellers, ramblers, boaters, anglers, campers & caravaners etc. They all seem to get along OK, i don't think a few people being loud put that many people off.

 

Just my opinion though, i'm sure others would prefer their pubs to be more like restaurants than bars, not me though.

[Magic Buzz]

The Barge has traded for 200 years and in it's time has had many tenants, some great, some bad and some wrong'uns. The Lottery funded community project, despite trading for two years and turning over in excess of £1 million failed to register and account for VAT and are being investigated by HMRC. However, life at the Barge will go on, although not for the project group, Honeystreet Ales, the landlords, will be taking the pub back in house, completing the unfinished refurbishment and will be re-opening the pub in due course.

[Flocal]

Sad times

 

For as long as i've known the barge, its been a lively place, and bikers have been just a part of its clientelle all that time, along with many other walks of life, hippies, new age travellers, ramblers, boaters, anglers, campers & caravaners etc. They all seem to get along OK, i don't think a few people being loud put that many people off.

 

Just my opinion though, i'm sure others would prefer their pubs to be more like restaurants than bars, not me though.

 

Totally agree, if you going to the Barge, expect something a little different to your average country pub

[dmr]

If I remember correctly this is exactly why the community project took over the pub, the Barge was not in any financial trouble but the lease was up for sale and it was feared that new owners would want to turn the Barge into yet another bland canalside eatery.

The desire was to retain the unique, and sometimes lively and eccentric, nature of the place.

I hope the next owners continue in the same direction.

 

..........Dave

[Jim Batty]

It seems that the Barge Inn at Honeystreet on the K & A has closed, a little over two years since it was "rescued" by the villagers. Link to local paper report http://www.gazetteandherald.co.uk/news/towns/marlboroughheadlines/9999048.Jobs_lost_as_the_Barge_Inn_at_Honeystreet_closes/

 

Dave

 

Interesting. I remember The Barge Inn had a very decent cash injection - and lots of publicity and quasi-celebrity interest and enthusiasm - via the Village SOS scheme last year. What happened to all that?

 

We must have hit them on a bad day, as there wasn't any food whatever available (including crisps), no juice, and all other drinks were lashed out in plastic disposable cups (some of which were being rinsed in the sink for re-use). Not brilliant.

[Peter-Bullfinch]

We stopped there this summer and had a great evening. I hope it reopens. The large building project looked very interesting but wasn't finally complete. What is happening there?

[MtB]

Almost £½m funding from The Lottery followed by £1m of cash taken over the bar in two years, along with failure to register for VAT and to HMRCE finding they need to use their powers to stop the business from trading, sounds like deliberate and serious fraud to me.

[cobaltcodd]

Why don't people understand that all you do is collect VAT on behalf of HMRC. It isn't "yours" to spend. It isn't part of your "profit"

[the grinch]

Why don't people understand that all you do is collect VAT on behalf of HMRC. It isn't "yours" to spend. It isn't part of your "profit"

 

most of us do, sadly some fail to do so, but the VAT being 20% is killing small businesses the government needs to get a grip and lower it by at least 3 - 4% similarly all businesses should pay, not just the ones that take over the limit and those like myself who have to be vat registered because of clients who need vat invoices (I could easily de-register as turnover is at an all time low) but losing my best 5 customers for a saving of vat would be financial suicide.

[boathunter]

Quite - i used to be vat registered because I worked for a huge company that simply couldn't deal with non-registered suppliers.

It's a piece of cake TBH and if you don't want to do all the sums you can opt for a standard % of turnover which varies for different types of businesses. My business had almost no costs to claim the vat back on, but I could collect at 17.5% and pay 12%. Win all the way for me.

 

Now I have a small classic car workshop and if I charged VAT I simply wouldn't get any work.

 

I agree there is not a hope in hell that this pub didn't know exactly what they were doing. One or more of the "villagers" possibly pocketed £200,000 over 2 years. That's assuming they declared all their income which in the cold light of day also seems unlikely.

Edited October 23, 2012 by boathunter

[boingy]

There is an update here:

 

http://www.gazetteandherald.co.uk/news/towns/marlboroughheadlines/10000066.Pub_at_Honeystreet_insolvent__chairman_of_Lottery_backed_buy_out_group_confirms/

 

They are insolvent despite the large throughput of customers.

That's what management by a committee of amateurs does for you!

[Tigerr]

It was a quite unique pub, with a unique range of customers, but looked quite problematic in terms of pub management. These days a wet led pub is almost always losing money unless its a huge drinking den, and I think they really struggled with the food side. Attempts to take it gastro/high margin didn't work, because the core of the pubs identity was in the bohemian (notoriously cheapskate) community side of things rather then the spending side, and I think the bohos scared off the spenders. The Barge community is a quite particular group of folk, not to be confused with the Honeystreet local community - who I suspect loathe the invasion of their home area by crusties, bikers, druggies, and the loud music etc.

I sat and had a beer there this summer and watched a group share a large supermarket bottle of cider in the pubs glassware, with the knowledge of staff/mates, and thought this isn't the way to run a business, although they clearly felt completely entitled.

I hope it opens back up though as its a unique place. It will be funny to see what happens if its bought by e.g. a kiwi gastro pub enthusiast - because you can bet the 'community' will want to reclaim their space.

[PaddingtonBear]

Yes but it was not a business in the conventional sense especially as it was supported by £400000 from the Lottery, a source of funding for 'good causes'. The biggest scandal is not the business failure, which was waiting to happen if what others have said is true but how the Lottery thought it was a good cause and even if it did why the outputs were not closely monitored especially as the 'shop' doesnot appear to have even been started. When I was a project manager of a partially Lottery funded projects they demanded monthly progress reports with agreed outputs and it was demanded that part of the funding was set aside to pay for professional help especially to set up transparent accounting systems. There has been a serious failure by the Lottery management towards this project.

 

Why were their costs "so much higher than the previous leasees" you would think that they would be cheaper - voluntary management, cheap staff, lottery subsidy, something smells a great deal.

Edited October 24, 2012 by PaddingtonBear

[Proper Job]

You've only got the staff to help themselves to the odd free drink and that's your profit pissed up against the wall

[George94]

most of us do, sadly some fail to do so, but the VAT being 20% is killing small businesses the government needs to get a grip and lower it by at least 3 - 4% similarly all businesses should pay, not just the ones that take over the limit and those like myself who have to be vat registered because of clients who need vat invoices (I could easily de-register as turnover is at an all time low) but losing my best 5 customers for a saving of vat would be financial suicide.

 

Nobody needs a VAT invoice. Just an invoice, with a proper business name and address on it, like this:

 

Fred Smith, trading as Hamsterfan,

4, The Laurels,

Honeystreet

Wilts

DV4 2AA

[boathunter]

Nobody needs a VAT invoice. Just an invoice, with a proper business name and address on it, like this:

 

Fred Smith, trading as Hamsterfan,

4, The Laurels,

Honeystreet

Wilts

DV4 2AA

So your client is offering you £100K work per year for the forseeable. What do you do? Argue the toss or register? I know what I did. This is the real world.

 

Same for ISO9002 or whatever it is now - poppycock, just shows you have files and bits of paper and have considered policies on "stuff". Register, get the work, slip out later.

Edited October 24, 2012 by boathunter