Mystery as Taste of the West group goes into administration

MYSTERY surrounds the collapse into administration of the UK’s largest independent regional food group, Taste of the West.

- by WILLIAM TELFORD [e-mail] @businesslive

The company had King Charles III as a patron, more than 1,000 members who paid to join, in Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire, and ran a high-profile annual awards scheme.

Its Cornish members included some of the county's best-known food and drink producers, distributors, restaurants, cafés, pubs, hotels, farm shops and speciality retailers.

Set up in 1991, Taste of the West's aim was to “champion food and drink producers” in the region “as well as all the places that serve and sell them”.

Now administrators from Bristol firm SWBR have been appointed at the High Court, sitting in Bristol, in respect of the community interest company (CIC) Taste of the West Country.