IT IS always sad when any business goes into administration, doubly so when it is such a historic name as the 158-year-old Liverpool-based brewery chain Cains.

The owners, brothers Sudarghara and Ajmail Dusanj, have run the firm since 2002, but had to relinquish control yesterday afternoon when critical talks with the Bank of Scotland collapsed.

One glimmer of hope is that administrators say they have already received expressions of interest in the company, which employs 1,000 people.

The group’s 109 pubs were also continuing to trade yesterday, and there were no immediate redundancies as the administrators worked to sell the business as a going concern.

The sell-off follows months of efforts to prevent the company going into administration after it ran into cash-flow difficulties. The firm reported increased half-year losses at the end of July, and last month HM Revenue & Customs issued a winding-up petition at the High Court because of money it claims it was owed.

Cains said that this disputed tax bill, along with rising costs and the impact of the smoking ban, had effectively finished off the business.

The news is especially unwelcome during Capital of Culture year, for which Cains is the official beer. Cains has had mixed fortunes in recent times, and the latest sell-off means it is now looking for its sixth owner in just 23 years.

The Dusanj brothers had seemed to be on the brink of creating a stable, profitable brewery after investing six years’ work in turning around the company’s fortunes.

Production increased from 24 hours a week to 120 hours a week under their management, thanks to a number of major contracts to produce own-label beers to the supermarket sector, and was recently operating at capacity.

It is to be hoped that a new, sympathetic buyer will come along to consolidate the progress made by the Dusanj brothers, safeguarding the 100 staff at Cains’ Stanhope Street brewery, and the 900 others employed across the pubs division.