This article is more than 1 year old

Nomura shoot Grey Archer in heart

Slings and arrows

Nomura has pulled the funding plug on Grey Archer, an online exchange for the UK pub trade, resulting in 150 redundancies with immediate effect. Staff will not get one month's pay in lieu of notice, according to sources.

The Japanese investment bank, until recently one of the UK's most significant pub owners, had committed to providing £30m in investment in Grey Archer. But the company withdrew funding last Friday (July 26), leaving Grey Archer in an 'impossible position' to trade.

Grey Archer had spent £18m in developing the online exchange, signing up publicans and supplying them FOC with a PC, printer, training and support. So you'd think there was £12m left in the kitty? Wrong.

In an interview with the Publican, Patrick Dardis, Grey Archer’s business development and marketing director, said: "Nomura sold its pub businesses much earlier than expected which did not give us time to build in terms of scale. Nomura no longer had a pub company and, therefore, no need for Grey Archer."

Grey Archer has begun liquidation proceedings. ®

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