Is the brewery gone too or were they kept as separate companies ?
Separate. It's just the pubs listed earlier in the thread. The brewery is actually one of the creditors 🙃 It seems the pubs' ownership has already been transferred to a new company.
This has to be tending towards trading insolvent surely?
Another creditor is one of the still operating GBB pubs - Rua Brew Pub Ltd. Supplies being loaned would be a guess there.
I know nothing about how business procedures work, but my understanding is that Pizza Eile is no longer trading. Its assets have been transferred to a new company and it's being wound up. I imagine Revenue gets most, if not all, of what's available to the creditors.
I meant in their latter months, with that list of creditors.
Oh. I dunno. I did hear on the grapevine a while back that they just stopped paying people. That's why the owner of The 108 kicked them out, for example.
No dedicated one. You'll find a few taps in Tigh Neachtain, a very decent selection in Blue Note, a few in McGinns and then the odd tap or two in a cupla other places.
The loss of 3 craft pubs is acute. One staying open/new owner is positive, as alluded to above, but remain to be seen if it goes the macro route. Anyone know which it is? Salt House has had a paint job and spruce up over the last few days so I'm guessing maybe that.
My local Aldi at least has a steady supply, and they all have DRS barcodes
Surely somebody would see the opportunity to buy and run one as a craft beer pubs.
The little one over the bridge to Claddagh would be a lovely pub if owned by someone better than Galway Bay.
McGinns, Rabbits and The Old 55 all had between seven and ten craft taps when I was in town a couple of weeks ago.
Wouldn't have thought that looking at any for them passing by. That Ol' 55 looks like a nice spot.
The Gasworks is gone now as well. That was another GBB pub.
They rented the space from the Grand Canal Hotel who have already renovated the pub and reopened as The Waterbank.
Given that they made and sold they own beer, and so there are no middlemen / distributors taking a slice, and given that their selling prices were high, how could they not make profits??
McGinn's in Woodquay has a lot of taps.
The Universal on William Street west also.
What does The 108 refer to here?
A pub.
Scale (and ingredient cost, to an extent). Even with the half duty, the cost of producing a keg of Full Sail is going to be vastly higher than it is for Heineken to sling a keg out of Cork.
Also, because the brewery is unaffected here, it is unlikely they were selling to the pubs at a particularly reduced price. Also, they did sell other peoples products; and spirits, and food.
108 Rathgar Road, Dublin, okay I see now, thanks.
Yes, okay, but didn't they sell their products at prices higher than Heineken prices?
As mentioned above they may not have been getting the beer at a significantly reduced price but beyond that their pubs had all the hallmarks of massive overextension as a brand and a serious lack of expertise at management level.
The beer always felt like the were a brewery whoring themselves for a buyout and the pubs were utter crap. Not sure they ever saw craft beer as anything more than a business opportunity.
I called their pubs out here a few years back as poorly led and visionless and was chastised for my "blasphemy" but I sadly feel like I was right in hindsight.
Not vastly higher.
I don't need my pubs to have a "vision", I just need them to sell decent craft beer at a reasonable price (which will be higher than macro prices), in a clean pub, with friendly and efficient staff, and ideally with the option of food. Most of the GBB pubs did exactly that. Any way you look at it, the loss of a big chain of craft-centric pubs is a real shame, especially if they're reopening as macro-only venues.
Brú Bar in Fairview is gone as well. Closed a couple of months back, I was in a couple of weekends ago and it's just 100% macro beer now. That's one that was originally owned by Brú in Trim. I presume Rua Ltd is Bar Rua near Stephen Street, which they also acquired in the 'merger'/takeover?
First off the GBB pubs were manky.
Secondly you do need your pub to have a vision. That doesn't have to mean some fancy gimmick but the owners need to know what they want the pub to be and ensure it is implemented. Bierhaus has a vision, Cassidy's, The Oval and Mother Mac's all have a vision.
Maybe the GBB vision was to gut a room, paint it black and never clean it. But if it was it was a crap one. The pubs that copied the English hipster style (Capel St.) were alright but still had problems. If I'm around Capel St. or Temple Bar I drink macro in a well run pub over GBB pubs.
It could be claimed that the likes of GBB smothering the market with their over cooked finances was a bad thing for the beer industry. Similar to how a few brands in London started to choke the market.
No craft at all in the new Against the Grain.
Anybody know the specifics of what happened with PMac's and why did the owners exit the location? It was always busy and seemed to have a fairly established crowd.
Even the GBB core business doesn’t look to be in the best shape these days. As I was reading this thread I popped over to the web shop. They do have two new beers but I kind of lost interest in their core range. They’re still coming in those 330ml cans as well.
A restaurant has taken over the lease judging by internet chatter. So pub had no choice it seems.
Manky? No. Dark, yes, I'll give you that. I mean, personally, if I'm around Capel Street or Temple Bar, I'll drink in Underdog or the Porterhouse or Beer Temple, and still enjoy a decent craft beer at a non-extortionate price, but you do you.
So that's at least two of the GBB pubs now lost to craft beer. I'd say Diageo and Heineken were gloating.
Coming to Aldi next week:
Northbound Brewery Derry - Kolsch Style Beer.
Hercules Brewing Co Antrim - Yardman Rivets IPA.
McCracken's Brewery & Distillery Armagh - Stout.
Long Meadow Cider Armagh - Rhubarb and Honey Cider.
Troughton's - Armagh Cider 0.0%.
Fierce Mild Louth - Fierce Mild Beer 0.0%.
Also:
Killowen Distillery Down - Gloria Coffee Liqueur.
I'm not sure if we can officially call them Irish but....
And Greyson's Gin in a paper bottle 😕🤔.
