An East Lancashire pub has gone into liquidation after struggling to bounce back from the pandemic - but the owner wants to reassure customers that it is staying open.

The Lower Buck Inn in Waddington has gone into liquidation – but the owners say they aren’t closing and are determined to bounce back as a new company.

Owner Oliver Clegg said: “It’s not a great situation for us at the minute or the hospitality industry in general. 

“We are still trading and pushing forward and planning things well into the future in order to get through this now very tricky winter period due to the energy crisis.”

He said the Inn, based in Edisford Road, has struggled to recover from a difficult pandemic, where trade and footfall were reduced and they were faced with unexpected PAYE bills following the furlough scheme.

Oliver said: “The hospitality industry was forced to close during the pandemic and we still feel the repercussions of this.

“We have had some issues regarding furlough. I decided to keep employees on thinking it was the right thing to do.

“I never could have foretold that we would end up with huge PAYE and national insurance bills when the industry was forced to close.”

Oliver, who has run the Inn for more than five years, said last year’s Omicron surge led to Christmas cancellations and staffing problems that left him £25,000 shy of previous years' festive period turnover. 

The team is now putting measures in place to protect the business from towering energy costs and the cost of living crisis.

He said: “People’s spending habits are totally changing and people aren’t coming out as much.

“Prices from my suppliers have also gone up.

“We are formulating a plan. We could be reducing opening hours and making small changes, such as installing insulation on windows and more blankets for customers, it’s what we have to do because we don’t want to grind to a stop.

“The open fires will be roaring away come the start of October.”

Begbies Traynor have been appointed as the liquidators for the pub.

A spokesperson for the company said: "As a result of challenging trading conditions following the pandemic and related restrictions imposed on the hospitality sector, Joint Liquidators from Begbies Traynor were appointed to administer the Creditors Voluntary Liquidation of Lower Buck Inn Ltd on 17 August 2022. The business and assets were sold to a company called LBINN Limited.

"Our latest Red Flag Alert research indicates that almost 10,000 businesses across Lancashire (9,926) were experiencing significant financial distress during the second quarter of 2022, with 375 of them being in the Bars & Restaurant sector.

“We expect to see businesses in this sector restructure their operations in order to survive in the current economic climate of rising inflation."