Meeting to discuss possible Joint Venture to purchase the Pub

by
Apologise for a second note about the pub but in my haste to send out the email last night, I introduced the subject by saying that John & Dillie had decided not to continue to run the pub when in fact John is still keen to remain involved if the village is supportive and this is what it says in paragraph six of their original note:
 “John now wants to open the possibility of buying the pub as a joint venture with any others from the village who’d like to keep it in local hands.  Some friends have quite often mentioned that they’d like to be involved if there were such a move. And I’m willing to keep going with it.”See Full text repeated below and if you are interested then be at the meeting on Monday.

To… Everyone
The Village
Stratton Audley
From Dillie & JohnRe:  The Red Lion

This morning I showed round an agent from Stonegate, who own the pub.  He took extensive photographs and it’s going on the market.
A quick history of our involvement.
John very much wanted to open the pub when lockdown started lifting, for the sake of Frank’s memory and the locals’ need to see its pub back open.  We opened it within Frank’s Estate and then, when Probate was granted, kept running it.  We formed THE RED LION PARTNERSHIP which is just John and me, that’s the entity that currently runs the pub.
After a while, we thought we should make an offer for it and, to cut a long story short, they accepted £500,000.  We had a survey done, and the survey confirmed a price range between £450,000 and £600,000.  Stonegate made it very clear that they would not accept less thant £500,000.
Then Ukraine happened, and I baled out.  John’s health hasn’t been great and my lunatic work commitments this year have meant things have been overlooked.  He agreed it was probably a step too far to buy the pub – he’s 75 and I am now 70.  And it needs a lot of investment.
In the past year, we’ve had two glitches – I’ve had to invest in expensive equipment for the kitchen, I’ve installed fire doors and fire alarms etc.  So our finances looked a bit wobbly for a week or two – but in the main, we’ve kept our heads above water.
John now wants to open the possibility of buying the pub as a joint venture with any others from the village who’d like to keep it in local hands.  Some friends have quite often mentioned that they’d like to be involved if there were such a move.
And I’m willing to keep going with it.  I’m very proud of some of the improvements that we’ve made and it would be sad to see those go backwards under new ownership.
So if anyone is interested, can we have a meeting?  I suggest Monday night at the pub – 6.30, when it’s closed.  Or Tuesday, but I would prefer Monday and will assume Monday unless it appears that Monday is impossible.  I am more than happy to open our accounts to anyone interested (nothing to hide there, haha!!!!) and will try and get the P&L figures from when we opened in May last year.  I’ll also give a guided tour of the premises and we will answer any questions that people have.
We’ll have to act soon if we’re going to do anything, hence the haste – apart from anything else, I am unavailable in person from Thursday 28th (Edinburgh Festival) till the end of August, but can always zoom.
Please reply either by phone 07968 393 428, or back to me at this address – dilliedarling@gmail.com