‘Auberge views are no longer exceptional’

Andrew Haining, a former Aurigny chairman who has held many other senior business roles, bought the restaurant for £1m. in 2018, but it closed the following January after financial and staffing difficulties.

Now Mr Haining has applied for change of use permission, saying that years of experience in the hospitality trade meant he knew the site was not viable as a restaurant.

He has blamed high staff costs and noise restrictions in a residential area, but also the restaurant’s location and its views across the sea to Herm and Sark.

‘The views are no longer exceptional,’ Mr Haining said in the planning application letter.

‘Octopus for example has just as much of a “wow” factor view, but you don’t need to get in a taxi to enjoy it at lunchtime – and views are only visible in the daytime and early evening. To generate £20,000 per week, a unit really needs to trade very strongly Wednesday through Sunday – not just Friday and Saturday night.’

Mr Haining is currently chairman of Heartstone Inns, which owns a chain of pubs in southern England. The company ran Auberge before it closed. Revenues and profitability at Auberge had been falling for a number of years and Heartstone found trading conditions in Guernsey to be tougher than expected. The loss of a chef and the maitre d’ had made things worse.

He said the inherited financial position was misleading –while it showed the owners making a small profit, it did not take staff accommodation costs into account.

Losses mounted and Heartstone terminated the tenancy of the restaurant. Since then there have been unsuccessful talks with other operators about taking on the property.

‘There have been no offers to rent the property received, which in itself is indicative of the market for this type of unit in this location,’ Mr Haining said.

‘The size of the unit means that it really needs to generate in excess of £20,000 per week to make a profit. In its heyday, with a well-known local chef, the unit did do those numbers.

‘The only discussion that might have led to a short-term use was with an operator whose premises were being rebuilt (in effect a ‘pop up’). However, in the end the operator believed the space was not viable for him, even in those circumstances.’

A tenant did take on the site for events before the pandemic, rebranding the site as ‘The View’, but success was limited and that business has now moved to a St Peter Port site.

Plans have been submitted for two bedrooms and two bathrooms on the ground floor. A kitchen/sitting room/dining room, takes in the east coast view.

Two more bedrooms would be created on the second storey.

The original two storey pitched-roof house on the site was built around 1920.

The large extension that forms the restaurant was built between 1940 and 1960.

The neighbouring dwelling to the north, which was owned by Mr Haining, was rebuilt to form a new five-bedroom home in 2010.

n The planning application for the Auberge site can be found at https://www.gov.gg/liveplanningapplications.