Cain's Brewery: Time called on Liverpool brewers

A brewery that has been producing beer in Liverpool for more than 150 years has been wound-up, with debts totalling more than £8m.

Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs were owed more than £5m and called in liquidators at Cain's Brewery in Stanhope Street.

It is the third time the company has collapsed in 15 years and almost 40 staff are believed to be affected.

A separate firm, run by the owners of Cain's, plans to redevelop the site.

More than £100,000 worth of beer left inside vats in the brewery will have to be destroyed.

Brothers Sudarghara and Ajmail Dusanj, closed the brewery in May - it has now become the subject of a successful winding up order by HMRC.

The pair bought the brewery for a second time in September 2008 after it went into administration the previous month,

They first took over the Robert Cain & Co brewery in July 2002.

Development plans

The brewery owed HMRC £5m for excise duty, VAT and PAYE and also owed 44 other creditors a total of £3m.

Workers have been told there is no money for redundancy.

In April, the Dusanj brothers announced plans to create a multi-million pound Brewery Village in the area, incorporating shops, a cinema, hotel, spa, gym and other attractions as well as apartments.

Robert Cain first brewed beer on the site in 1858. Ten years after his death in 1917 it merged with Walker's of Warrington with the site sold to Higson's of Liverpool.

The brewery was bought by Manchester brewer Boddington's in 1985 and sold six years later to the Danish Brewery Group and renamed Robert Cain & Co Ltd.