The Liddington, the 200 bedroom hotel and conference centre near Swindon which was purchased last year by the owners of the Petersham Group, has gone into administration.
The directors said that due to the disastrous state of the economy, corporate demand for meetings, conferences and training had “all but dried up.”
They said: “The Liddington, a bespoke facility designed and located for servicing the commercial power houses of Bristol, Swindon, the Thames Valley and the M4 corridor opened its doors for business in September last year following a re-branding and ‘new to market’ promotional campaign.
“September trading was excellent but sadly this was just one month before the country’s economy started to collapse. On a local level the Liddington was severely affected. Training and travel budgets were soon frozen by the Liddington’s mainstream clients in the Swindon area.”
They added: “Slowly the order book has started to rebuild, however, poor trading at over the last four months put enormous strain on its cash flow and capital resources and subsequently a request was made by the directors for a temporary overdraft facility in order to trade through these difficult times – however this was declined and so without temporary cash.
The Liddington will continue trading ‘as normal’ under the administration of Grant Thornton Accountants and managed by De Vere Venues (AHG) who are the UK market leaders in operating specialist conference centre hotels. The other hotels in The Petersham Group are separately owned, independent companies and will not in any way be affected by the administration of the Liddington.
