Catering company Peyton and Byrne made a loss of more than £300,000 running cafés and tea rooms at the Royal Pavilion, the Dome, Brighton Museum and Hove Museum.
The caterer has written off just over £1 million in relation to the contract which was ended last summer.
The company told investors that it lost £2.56 million in the past financial year on a turnover of £22.8 million. It made a £222,000 profit the year before on a turnover of £18.7 million.
Peyton and Byrne was 18 months into the seven-year deal, which was reported to be worth more than £20 million and included events catering, when the contract was ended. It said at the time that the cafés did not “fit with their core activities in London”.
The London business said that it had recorded exceptional costs of £1 million in relation to its “mutually agreed contract termination” in Brighton.
This produced a site operating loss of £309,000, an impairment charge of £638,000 and professional fees of £61,000.
All I can say is thank God that Peyton and Byrne have gone – they were ridiculously over-priced & elitist. I would like to see a basic coffee shop & eating place in the museum – with reasonable prices & serving simple cake, coffee & tea. Something a normal family could afford.