NEW owners are being sought for three popular bars in the city centre.
Administrators are seeking buyers for the Castle pub, in Castle Road; Dogma, in Byard Lane;and Bad Papa's Tiki Shack, in Broad Street.
A buyer for Dogma in Lincoln is also being sought.
The four are owned by Ever So Sensible Bars Ltd, part of the Nottingham-based Ever So Sensible Group.
The pub and bars will remain open while administrators from accountancy firm KPMG seek buyers.
The Ever So Sensible Group did not return calls from the Post for comment.
The company also owns a number of Nottingham restaurants including Le Mistral in Sherwood and the city centre, and Fothergills, next to the Castle pub.
They will be unaffected as they are operated by Ever So Sensible Restaurants Ltd.
The company also owns pubs, bars and restaurants in Leicester, Lincoln and the Peak District.
Once the four bars are shed, Ever So Sensible will be left with no bars in the city centre.
But some believe that a more honed, specific, local strategy can lead to success.
"Local pub companies as a rule have done well because they know the locality and they know what the customer wants to drink," said Steve Westby, chairman of the Nottingham branch of the Campaign for Real Ale.
"Great Northern Inns is a local pub company and they do phenomenally well."
Mr Westby also mentioned Notts-based Bartsch Inns, which owns a handful of places including Basford's Horse and Groom and Radcliffe's Horse and Chestnut, as an example of a small local company that knows its market.
"Small pub companies do tend to do better than the larger ones," he added.
City centre pub The Gatehouse has announced this week that it is set to close. The pub, on Tollhouse Hill, at the corner of Upper Parliament Street, has boards on the outside saying it is closing down.
Its owners declined to comment to the Post.
