Leonard Curtis directors appointed liquidators to restaurant chain Grillstock

Grillstock had restaurants in Bristol, Bath and Leicester as well as a food stall in Bristol city centre.

The predecessor business, Grillstock Ltd, was placed into Administration in November 2017 and ceased to trade on December 1, 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, increasing stock costs due to the loss in value of the pound and the inability to secure additional funds from investors, the Bristol-based company ceased trading on October 12, 2018. All 23 employees were made redundant.

Another factor that contributed to the company’s demise was its festival business. The US-style smokehouse had begun life hosting festivals of “meat, music and mayhem”.

GS Festivals was incorporated in January 2018 and was a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hedrick. It had planned to host the Bristol food festival Grillstock this year, but the festival was cancelled at short notice due to low ticket sales, which caused substantial damage to the brand.

Liquidator Neil Bennett: “We will shortly undertake a marketing exercise for the assets of the company for the benefit of the liquidation.”