COMPLETING the purchase of Sandpiper’s hospitality estate has ended staff uncertainty, according to Liberation Group CEO Mark Crowther (pictured).

He has been in the island to brief Bucktrouts employees, pub managers and all their tenants on his plans. They had, he said, been neglected for too long.

‘They have been through a difficult two or three years with the end of CI Traders and then being taken over by Sandpiper, where they weren’t strategically core to the business. But to me they are all we want to do. All the management staff can see that and they are very excited about it.

‘The fact that we have got money to invest in the pubs and restaurants and that we are tying the drinks business once more in with the pubs has gone down well, as has the fact that we have been very open with our communication to all 550 staff.’

The Liberation Group, which was founded to buy the portfolio, now owns 21 pubs in Guernsey, 42 in Jersey and two in Alderney, as well as Bucktrout & Co Ltd, the Jersey Brewery and Victor Hugo Ltd.