Innis & Gunn, the brewing and pubs chain group, is closer to being sold, though it its founder was last night unwilling to disclose further details.

Dougal Sharp, speaking to reporters after the AGM in Edinburgh, raised expectations that a sale of the company is now firmly on the agenda.

He said “we hope to sell the company”, but declined to say whether or not there had been approaches.

“The most likely outcome is a trade sale,” he said.

In the meantime, he disclosed that Flavourly, which provides fulfilment services, has gone into administration. It is understood that it has appointed Glasgow firm Mail Marketing (Scotland) and an announcement is due in the next few weeks.

The demise of Flavourly was not previously announced and comes after a heady few years since it was set up by Ryan O’Rorke in 2012.

O’Rorke appeared on television’s Dragons’ Den and was offered investment by all five dragons. The company also raised funds through several crowdfunding exercises. Crowdcube claimed Flavourly to be the first Scottish company to raise over £500,000 in crowdfunding.

It was was sold in 2017 to Drinkshare Holdings for £118,000, a company in which Mr O’Rorke was a director. At the time of the fund-raising Flavourly was being touted as having a value of £1.2m.

Mr Sharp also disclosed that Innis & Gunn will overtake fourth-placed Stella Artois in the league table of premium lagers sold in Scotland.

He said the company was focused on growth through sponsorship of events such as those at Edinburgh Castle. He disclosed that it had been appointed the official beer for the city’s Christmas Festival.

“It is a big sponsorship for us,” he said, confirming that backing events was currently preferred to opening more pubs which were facing costs of £150,000 per outlet in energy bills alone.

He said the company had been the beer provider for concerts by The Who and Rod Stewart and he had donned a yellow vest to help with the queues at the beer kiosks.

“I f***ing loved it,” he said.

“Events are where we are focused as the capital outlay is lower,” he said. “It is not the right environment to be rolling out more pub outlets.”

Mr Sharp said turnover in the year to the end of December had risen, but he made no mention of the £2.37m million loss.