FEARED to be heading for liquidation, Porlock Bay Oysters community business was this week saved from closure by a local businessman who has bought it out of administration for £30,000.

Residents who had assumed that the business was booming were shocked to learn that all the £300,000 that had been poured into parent company Porlock Futures CIC since it was set up by local people in 2012 had been spent, and administrators had been called in.

The capital included £75,000 from the Power to Change lottery fund and £154,000 from over 150 residents, who had loaned the company from £200 to £10,000 – often from their savings – after being assured it had a rosy future.

Supported by Porlock Parish Council, Porlock Bay Oysters was hailed as a “brilliantly successful community project” when it harvested the bay’s first oyster crop for a century in 2016.

There were plans eventually to boost production to over half a million oysters a year and no hint of any problems ahead.

“We have only learned about the true position in the past few months,” said one shareholder who had loaned £1,000.

“With the company making a loss of over £100,000 in the past two years and now being wound up, the chances of us getting any of our money back in the near future are pretty slim.”

“Everyone had such high hopes in the beginning that Porlock Oysters was going to do great things for the village. It’s so sad that it hasn’t worked out like that.”

But local businessman Mark Pendarves, whose company TII Aquaculture Ltd, has bought the business and its assets, is confident he can turn it around.

“We have kept on all the staff and it will be very much business as usual as we assess what changes need to be made in the company’s financial and marketing structure,” he told the Free Press this week.

“I am very excited about the purchase and hope to be able to provide a solid financial foundation in order to develop the business and its fantastic oysters.

“I very much hope to maintain the business’s ethos of providing local employment opportunities and further enhancing the reputation of Porlock Vale and the surrounding area.”

For the full report, buy today’s Free Press (July 26).