Over 100 UK jobs lost as Ben Stokes-backed cricket bars shut

Sixes, which used to run 16 cricket-themed entertainment venues across England including one in Oxford’s Westgate Shopping Centre, entered administration in December last year.

The hospitality business immediately closed its site in Southampton and there was a great deal of speculation about its other venues which largely remained open as a rescue-deal was sought.

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However, after months, an administrator’s progress report – published this month – has confirmed that a full rescue could not be achieved and a number of sites were closed with over 100 employees made redundant.

Sixes was founded in 2020 by Calum Mackinnon and Andy Waugh.

In 2023, the business secured funding from 4Cast Investment Group, the brainchild of England internationals Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer and Stuart Broad.

Sixes Social did have a venue at the Westgate Oxford (Image: Newsquest)

It is among chains to have grown in recent years as part of a boom in so-called competitive socialising, competing with brands such as Flight Club and Junkyard Golf.

The group said in December that it has a core of strongly performing sites but has seen others struggle in the face of fierce competition and “reduced consumer spending”.

A statement of affairs revealed debts to unsecured creditors of £3,447,197, including to the tax man.

Unsecured creditors are businesses, authorities or anybody who is owed money by Sixes but are at the back of the queue in getting their full money back.

After the Southampton site was shut, the decision was taken to close the Birmingham, Guilford, Fulham and Westfield venues in December as well.

In the administrator’s report by FRP Advisory, it was revealed that despite negotiations with several businesses a deal to secure the future of its Fitzrovia, Manchester and Oxford sites could not be completed and all three closed permanently on April 22.

Sixes Social Cricket (Image: Sixes Social Cricket)

Vantage Capital Partners Limited initially agreed to take over all four sites in a deal worth over £4 million but negotiations over a cash consideration requirement – an obligation to make a cash payment not using stock or debt – stalled the process.

As such the business made a new offer, by which it would only buy the London Bridge venue and certain of the business’ assets in a deal worth £3.5 million, citing the “sizable investment required” if it were to take over all four.

A separate agreement was initially negotiated for the Fitzrovia, Manchester and Oxford sites for £500,000 but the party behind the offer pulled out.

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In total, 102 employees were made redundant in the period.

The administrators said: “Achieving a sale of the business and assets of the group within a sector in which acquisitions have stalled, as well as within a wider economy with poor acquisition rates, is seen as positive.

“The sale preserved 21 jobs.”

On its website, Sixes currently advertises eight venues although a number of these are ‘franchise locations’ – meaning it has an independent owner – and only the London Bridge site was included in the deal with Vantage.