Brewery’s cash help for East Devon pubs

Palmers Brewery, which has inns across East Devon and West Dorset, has offered financial aid to its licensees.

All its pubs - including the Axminster Inn and the New Inn at Kilmington - have had to close because of coronavirus.

Now the brewery has put together a financial support package with a retrospective rent reduction of 50 per cent for the weeks in March before the lockdown.

This package has been expanded to zero rent for April and will be reviewed monthly.

Chairman and managing director John Palmer said: “We will not be collecting this at a later date, hence we will continue to support all our licensees during this difficult period.

“Over the past two weeks, I have been overwhelmed by the way in which our outstanding and resilient licensees have navigated an ever-changing environment and shown such ingenuity and community spirit.

“As a company, we have tried our utmost to keep helpful communication flowing. We are in this together with our wonderful licensee partners and hope that with our support, and their drive and determination we will all be in the best position to hit the ground running when safe to do so.”

With the exception of key essential functions, all Palmers employees are now on furloughed leave at the government reduce salary level of 80 per cent to maintain job security in the long run. Nobody has been made redundant and Palmers says it aims to keep it that way.

Mr Palmer added: “As a small business ourselves, we have also been hit for six. Earlier in the week, we took the difficult but inevitable decision to pause brewing at the historic Old Brewery in Bridport for the first time in it’s 226 year history.”