A STRUGGLING hotel and pub group with sites across the UK, including Suffolk and Essex, has been put in the hands of administrators. Directors of the London and Edinburgh Swallow Group, which includes Swallow Hotels Ltd, decided on the move following increasing heavy losses.

A STRUGGLING hotel and pub group with sites across the UK, including Suffolk and Essex, has been put in the hands of administrators.

Directors of the London and Edinburgh Swallow Group, which includes Swallow Hotels Ltd, decided on the move following increasing heavy losses.

Its 671 sites, employing around 7,300 people, are continuing to trade and administrators say it is “business as usual”, with no redundancies currently planned, and they are hoping to sell the businesses as going concerns.

The group's hotels in East Anglia include the Belstead Brook Hotel in Ipswich, the Cornwallis Country Hotel at Brome, near Eye, the Riverside Hotel in Mildenhall, the Rutland Arms Hotel in Newmarket, the Suffolk Hotel at Fornham St Genevieve, near Bury St Edmunds, the Swan Hotel at Gillingham, near Beccles, the Scole Inn, near Diss, The George, Colchester, and the Whitehall Hotel at Broxted, near Great Dunmow.

Roy Bailey, Angela Swarbrick and Alan Bloom from Ernst & Young were appointed as joint administrators to the companies yesterday.

Ernst & Young said the companies had “for some time struggled in the face of increasing heavy losses”.

“The directors of the group have considered various avenues and concluded that a restructuring through an insolvency process provided the best option for the business,” an Ernst & Young spokeswoman said.

Administrator Angela Swarbrick added: “We are continuing to trade the various companies on a 'business as usual' basis while we explore the possibility of a sale of the businesses and their assets as going concerns.”

Besides Swallow Hotels Ltd, other group companies in administration include London and Edinburgh Inns Ltd, Newlord Ltd, React Inns Ltd and the Gourmet Pub Company Ltd.

However, three other group companies are not part of the administration process - The George of Colchester Ltd, Winlease Ltd and Bowlin Insurance Company Ltd.

The London and Edinburgh Swallow Group, which ranks as one of Britain's biggest private hotel and pub businesses, was formed in 1996 by present executive chairman Alan Bowes.