BREWERY Wadworth has revealed that a total of 46 people based at head office in Devizes will be made redundant.

In June CEO Chris Welham told workers that 57 jobs were at risk among its central team and now after weeks of talks a deal has finally been reached.

Mr Welham said: “I can now confirm that a total of 46 redundancies will unfortunately occur in our centrally based teams but this is instead of the original 57 expected.

“Not all of the 46 people impacted actually work in Devizes as some work across the estate but are based from the brewery.

“I am acutely aware of the terrible consequences that redundancy brings to the people involved and their families.

“Whilst we have managed to reduce the impact of our central redundancy programme, I wanted to recognise and thank the teams for their sheer professionalism and understanding throughout this process. The support and commitment to Wadworth of those impacted over many years will never be forgotten.”

There is also about to be a big change at The Crown in New Park Street, Devizes when manager Jim Lynch leaves Wadworth after working for the company for 34 years.

Mr Welham said: “Jim, our much respected manager of the Crown is moving onto to pastures new.

“Jim has been an exceptional ambassador for the company over many years and he will be sorely missed. We wish Jim all the very best for the future.

“Ryan and Hannah Coates will be taking over the Crown shortly, they have worked for Wadworth for eight years.”

Jim said this week that he had decided the time was right for a new venture and was staying local. He said: “I will miss all of my regulars at The Crown. There have been some very big changes during my time there.” Ryan and Hannah used to run The King’s Arms in Melksham.

Mr Welham has also confirmed that all Wadworth managed pubs will be re-opened by the middle of September.

The Crown and the Barge at Seend Cleeve were the first managed pubs locally to open last week.

Mr Welham said: “I am pleased to confirm that we will be re-opening all of our managed pubs by the middle of September at the latest.

“We are currently working this through with all of our teams in the pubs to manage the reopening in phases and what this means.

“The vast majority of our tenanted pubs are now open across the business, although there are one or two that are still yet to decide to trade or finish off their preparations.

“From what we have seen so far, sales in our pubs have been slightly better than expected but we still have some way to go to reach normal levels.

“Our managed pubs that have reopened are trading at around 60 per cent of last year sales. This looks pretty consistent with what we have seen around the industry.

“Our Business Partners are reporting mixed results but on the whole, we are pleased with what we are seeing in the first couple of weeks or so. I think it is clear it is still early days, but we are hopeful that customers continue to gain confidence and return to more normal pub visiting, safe in the knowledge that our pubs are not only Covid compliant, but providing that all important pub experience once again.

“The Covid crisis has meant that we along with many other businesses have had to adjust to the new normal and this has involved a full review of our business.

“We are still progressing through the restructure programme for our Managed pubs which we expect to complete later in the year. “