Ships and Giggles Burnley: Town centre business put up for sale

Andy Mac, who brought MACs to the town centre in 2015 when he took over the former Walkabout premises, is now residing in the north of Scotland with no plans to return to Burnley.

He was close to walking away from the industry back in 2019 when arsonist Jordan Schofield set fire to the bar. Schofield was caught and arrested when he targeted the Hammerton Street venue for a second time a few weeks later.

Despite this setback, Andy spent just under a year completely renovating a fire-gutted interior, eventually re-opening as Ships and Giggles in May 2021. However, following the devastating death of his pregnant partner Sarah in 2022, life has taken him in a different direction.

"When I had the arson attack, the building insurance, with me attached to it, ended up quadrupling. It was like a manager's wage I had to pay just for that, and there was nothing I could do about it. It was really disheartening. I was kind of hands on then though, and when we re-opened after Covid, everybody was buzzing. But then when my partner had the stroke that led to her death, I just never went back.

"Since Sarah's death, I've just not been there, I've not done anything with the bar. I packed up, got myself a motorhome and I left. I lived in my motorhome and then moved to the north of Scotland because I'd bought a hotel up here. That was me done. I'm not down there. And I have no intentions of being down there. Sarah was from Burnley and anytime I think of there I just feel sick. I can't visit Burnley. I just can't go back there."

Andy believes the venue, and the town centre, still has massive potential and is hopeful someone will come along now and give it the TLC it deserves.

"I thought with Christmas out of the way, it was a good time to close the doors. I didn't want to start looking for a new manager or anything like that; I thought it would be best if it went to someone who's going to put some time into it. It can go to someone better. I've spent a lot of money on it, and it's a good venue. I just think the time's right for someone else to come in, take it over and re-open. There's nothing better than a nice relaunch. There's been about £250,000 spent on renovation, fixtures and equipment in there, the potential is absolutely massive. It just needs some TLC."

All interested parties can enquire here.