Hi Paul
It won't close for good mate.. as far as I'm aware
Marston's, who now own a 20year lease, will take over when we leave on Mar 19th. The old place will be closed for a while.. various 'expensive' odd's and sod's need to be done to bring it up to current fire regulations and they plan to do a number of things inside as well as outside to fit in with their 'scheme'.
The reason we're going is the one you're familiar with.. put simply, there aren't enough customers coming through the door. Many folk have been in over the last fortnight to say they're sorry we're going.. a large percentage of which we only see once or twice a year anyway! A cruel and bitter irony it's been difficult not to convey in their general direction!!! Since the global financial crash a few years ago.. we've struggled to make ends meet and this last year was a lot worse. Last christmas was dire and we didn't take anywhere near enough to cover ourselves last summer. This christmas just gone was equally poor leaving financial holes everywhere. We asked Marston's (who became our landlords when they bought what was left of the Eldridge Pope estate) for help last year and what was offered was near to nothing. They've now offered us what they consider a 'way out' which involves us paying them over £4k to become a 'Retail Partner'. Add that to another 3 months rent we owe and with a 'partnership' split of 80/20 (no guessing in who's favour that falls!) we'd be in double debt to them. No.. enough's enough.. time to walk away while we still have shirts on our proverbial backs! We need to take between 5-6k per week to cover the overheads (this doesn't include staff wages and other sundries) and we're currently trading at less than £3.5k. The sums don't add up mate. Out of the 20% left as our percentage, we'd have to pay ourselves, the staff, council tax for the flat and public liability insurance.. perhaps even their NI contributions too. It doesn't take a genius to work out that 20% of FA = FA!!
Anyways.. I've rambled on long enough. Whoever ends up taking the Bull will have a 400yo building with much that needs doing to it.. much that Marston's have no intention of fixing. They'll tart the place up (which it needs) and 'brand' the place with their own stuff. I'm sure it'll look great (on the surface) and will trade at good levels for the initial first few weeks (folk are nosey)
It'll be a shame not to see the 'improvements' and work with them but we'll not be losing any sleep by not doing so. I honestly can't say when it will open. As far as we're aware, they've yet to advertise it.. working on the assumption that we'd stay at the 11th hour. It was to close for 2 weeks for work to be done then a further week for staff training but as of this moment, we're not sure how long it will be closed for and they won't have any staff!! It WILL reopen though so your brother-in-law won't have to stay in Cray's Pond indefinitely
Convey this to him with our best wishes
ATB
DaveB
I was hoping for one more van load but it looks like it's gonna be two. I don't think the loft is big enough! 
I dare not try and unpack stuff because it will without doubt be in the wrong place. Alison is going to die when she see's the mess 
