The management team behind the buyout

SANDPIPER’S hospitality estate has been bought by The Liberation Group.  The deal, which has been on the cards for the past month, was confirmed yesterday afternoon.

It means the group, which was founded to buy the portfolio, was the unnamed company which revealed at the start of June that it would look to buy more pubs in Guernsey if the deal went through successfully.

For now the company will have to settle for 21 in Guernsey, 42 in Jersey and two in Alderney, as well as Bucktrout & Co Ltd, the Jersey Brewery and Victor Hugo Ltd.

Group chief executive officer Mark Crowther would not reveal how much the takeover had cost although there has been speculation it could be as much as £60m.

He reassured staff jobs were safe. ‘We’re going into this with the long-term intention of creating jobs, not cutting them. We certainly don’t have any plans for redundancies right now.’