Hank’s Dirty, with restaurants in Ipswich and Felixstowe, ceases trading after five years

A vegan restaurant chain with branches in Suffolk has stopped trading due to financial troubles.

Hank’s Dirty, which has five eateries across the East of England, has closed after five years.

The company announced the news via a social media post, in which the owners said: “It is with great sadness that I have to write this post.

“Hank's was heading into a successful summer season with lots of plans on the go.”

Hank’s Dirty operated a pub in St Helen’s Street, Ipswich, and out of Felixstowe’s Beach Street, in addition to locations in Norwich, Colchester and Cambridge.

The team had big plans going into the summer, having spent money on a refurbishment in Colchester, live music in Ipswich and into new technologies, the owners said.

“These exciting changes were funded by a new business investment that was to be brought into the business in early May,” the post said.

“Unfortunately, after a small delay, the company facilitating this investment delayed the payment for three months at the very last moment.

“The shock of this decision had a huge impact on the business and a significant amount of money had already been spent on these new projects.

“We've spent the past few days doing everything we could to try and resolve the situation, but it has left the business in a bankrupt situation.”

Hank’s Dirty first opened in 2019.

Its locations in Ipswich, Felixstowe, Norwich and Colchester have shut.

Its chain in Cambridge, run in partnership with Snug Bars, will be taken over by the latter’s team, meaning no jobs will be lost there.

The post added: “After five years, I've had to make the awful decision to stop trading.

“My sincere thoughts are with our incredible team who've played such an important part of the business, and who through no fault of their own, have found themselves out of work, and with our customers, who made Hank's such a wonderful place to work.”