Laurel unveils plans for Whitbread's leased and managed pubs

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The new Laurel Pub Company, created out of Whitbread's pub estate, is to drop brands such as Dome and Casa as part of a major restructuring.It has...

The new Laurel Pub Company, created out of Whitbread's pub estate, is to drop brands such as Dome and Casa as part of a major restructuring.

It has unveiled plans to sell 34 leased pubs and 36 managed houses, including the 14-strong Dome chain of café-bars.

Another 200 managed houses will be transferred to lease, which will be run by the newly named division, Laurel Pub Partnerships.

After selling 439 managed houses to Enterprise Inns, the new company will have 2,493 pubs - 1,872 of them leased and 621 managed.

It will be a major shake-up for the 3,000-strong Pub & Bar Company, which was sold by Whitbread to Morgan Grenfell Private Equity this month.

Chief executive Ian Payne (pictured) pledged to offer the 34 lessees whose pubs were being sold a chance to buy their businesses.

He also said that the 200 managers whose pubs were being transferred to lease would have the chance to continue running their outlets. They will be offered a special trial five-month agreement, with no premium payable.

Laurel has earmarked £10m to be spent by next February on supporting the lessees' businesses.

The managed division will focus on two of Whitbread's brands, the contemporary Hogshead pub chain and the community local concept Champion.

Mr Payne said that Hogshead would be revamped into a more flexible format, which could see some sites becoming more individual.

He said: "Hogshead will not just be about them all having the same name but sharing quality of service, product and food. We have some work to do, especially with the food which is not right at the moment."

There are plans to rebrand 20 of the 150 Hogshead pubs and integrate other outlets, including the award-winning Casa bar chain, into the format, boosting the chain to about 200.

Whitbread developed about 30 pubs as Champions, which are quality locals that retain their original names but share features such as décor. Whitbread's Giant Plate food offer will be retained for these pubs.

A further £18m is set to be spent on developing these core brands this year.

Laurel will also operate a third group of unbranded outlets, which could provide new concepts for future roll-out. This will include existing chains such as Bar:me young person's venues, RSVP café-bars and student bars trading under the "At the…" banner.

Mr Payne said Laurel would be working to rationalise the different menus within the managed estate, reducing them from the current 155 to nine.

He said the company was named after the tree whose leaves were used by the Greeks and Romans to crown victors in politics and sports because "we want to be associated with winning".

Laurel's managed house division is headed by Karen Forrester, the former boss of Bass' All Bar One and O'Neill's chains. Pub Partnerships retains managing director Robbie Halkett, who took the helm last year.

The business continues to be based at Whitbread Restaurants' headquarters in Dunstable, Bedfordshire, but is set to move in the future to a new base in Capability Green, Luton.