Documents reveal that Majestic Wine bought the Vagabond Wines business out of administration for £6.5m.
As part of the deal, Majestic bought nine Vagabond bars in London and Birmingham in April, securing 171 jobs.
Vagabond, known for serving more than 100 glasses of wine via self-serve machines, appointed administrators to Quantuma in March after it ran into financial difficulties due to debt racked up during the pandemic and the closure of its popular Heathrow airport bar.
Most of Vagabond’s locations were sold to Majestic, the wine merchant’s first venture into the hospitality industry.
Vagabond’s remaining two bars at Gatwick Airport were sold in June to private Airport Retail Enterprises (UK) Ltd for £400,000, according to an administrator’s report.
All 122 Gatwick employees were transferred to the new owners and the sale also facilitated the recovery of a £662,000 tenancy deposit from the landlord.
During the administration process, secured creditors, including Coutts Bank, were repaid in full and no employees were made redundant.
However, Vagabond’s “underperforming” bar in Canary Wharf was excluded from the sale and has since closed.
