What's go on here? Always seemed to be well thought of and reasonably busy...

"Roaming Roosters in Higham, a farm shop which sold free-range meat and had a bistro and coffee shop for the last six years, will no longer trade after falling into liquidation.

The business had closed five weeks ago, with no explanation from owners over the decision except a notice posted on the company’s Twitter page reading: “closed until further notice.”

Bosses at Companies House, which is the UK’s registrar of companies that incorporate and dissolve limited companies, have now revealed that the six-year-old business has fallen into liquidation and ceased trading. The details surrounding the reasons behind the liquidation have yet to be released.

The decision, which was made last Thursday, came following a virtual meeting held between the business’ creditors at the end of July.

Roaming Roosters, which first opened in 2012, was set up by family butchers Simon and Nick Mellin, both from Nelson.

In just 12 months the family business’ annual turnover shot up from £50,000 in 2012 to £1.2m in 2013, as reported in the national press.

The business’ initial success caught the eye of Nelson businessman Matthew Riley, chief executive of Daisy Group Plc.

Mr Riley, who has appeared as a judge on the BBC One business reality show The Apprentice with Lord Sugar, became a shareholder of Roaming Roosters back in March 2016.

But the entrepreneur resigned from the board of directors in October last year, just four months after £1million expansion plans were submitted to Pendle Council.

The plans set out an extension to the existing barn on the site as well as the creation of a children’s indoor play area and 20 new jobs. However these plans never came to fruition.

Mr Riley still owns the land but has confirmed he is not the operator and said no plans have been made for the future use of the site.

A spokesman for Matthew Riley said: “He is the landlord not the operator. The business has closed the site and we will have to consider what to do next.”

Records on Company House show that Andrew Jones is the last remaining director of the business and has been approached for comment. "

http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/ne ... quidation/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

#Brexit related increased supplier costs?

I’ve heard that it is to become a Mosque.

Two sensible replies

Not sure what happened, but I was a fairly regular customer and was extremely impressed with the establishment up until around 2016, where it appeared to take a severe decline in quality.

Well, in my opinion of course.

CoolClaret wrote:Not sure what happened, but I was a fairly regular customer and was extremely impressed with the establishment up until around 2016, where it appeared to take a severe decline in quality.

Well, in my opinion of course.

Yes thought it was decent enough when I went a while ago, can't remember whether it was the bacon or beans that were a bit too smokey though.

Other than the smokey breakfast ingredients I was impressed and under the impression it would be thriving...

Weren't they bought out by the Seafood Company about a year or two ago?

Seafood took over the running of the bistro only. Its a shame about the closure. Was a really good business for a few years but i think they tried to go too big too fast

As said above the bistro was always ‘sub-let’, with the original people being the couple who ran the Bay Horse in Fence years ago; it was very popular. It then went through a few hands before ending up with the Seafood company, when it was nowhere near as good. The problem came from the brothers focusing on their wholesale meat company Grass Roots, they kept investing in plant etc, chasing bigger orders; to do this they sold off the shop and more of the business to raise capital. Eventually those who now had control of the company, decided the only way to get their money back was to close it all down and sell. Crying shame as it was really good at the start. Years of work by the Father creating the family business gone.

Closed due to not being profitable

I went about 4 months ago and wasn't impressed at all.

I expected lots of meat inspired dishes with it supposedly coming from the farm, but it was basic as hell.

Most people seemed to be eating fish and chips?

same here whilst visiting the area. Went a few years ago and it was really good; went in March this year and it was very poor, couldnt believe the difference.

Used to be a real treat going there and getting some great meat after. As mentioned it went rapidly down hill and it was overpriced for greasy spoonmeals at best.

Living close by it was a handy eatary before a home match on a Saturday, in the end there was only the fish and chips I could trust them to cook properly, then last time the fish was burnt. The Seafood company ran it down then left it, I believe then the original owners took it back on, but it didn't improve much. Was told the big problem was that when Booths opened in Barrowford they took a lot of custom from Roosters. The strange thing thing there was that even when there were only a few people in, it was always noisy.

Free coffee at booths ..lol

The same tale as most on here, it was excellent up til early last year ..... and then steadily got worse. I think I last eat there in March and it really was poor ...... a shame really !

And there's me thinking this was another ****-take of the lads down the road...

ICL wrote:As said above the bistro was always ‘sub-let’, with the original people being the couple who ran the Bay Horse in Fence years ago; it was very popular. It then went through a few hands before ending up with the Seafood company, when it was nowhere near as good. The problem came from the brothers focusing on their wholesale meat company Grass Roots, they kept investing in plant etc, chasing bigger orders; to do this they sold off the shop and more of the business to raise capital. Eventually those who now had control of the company, decided the only way to get their money back was to close it all down and sell. Crying shame as it was really good at the start. Years of work by the Father creating the family business gone.

In hindsight should have replicated a similar model to keelham albeit on a smaller scale that always seems to be a busy business farm to fork.

I had a cracking steak there not long before it closed, and was shocked at how cheap it was. We were going to go more often, but that's not going to happen now.

Make do with going to Keelham instead.