Voyager sells ex-Bass pubs to Wizard

Voyager Pub Group has begun disposing of some of the managed houses that it bought from Bass.

It has sold 13 of the 982 pubs to Wizard Inns for an undisclosed sum and is marketing another 102 as a package.

Voyager, owned by Nomura Principal Finance Group, is converting most of the pubs to lease but said the rest were better suited to remaining as managed houses.

Wizard, which is also partly owned by Nomura, will now have an estate of 47, all managed.

Six of the pubs are in the Midlands, a further six are in London and the Home Counties, and the remaining site is on the south coast. All the existing pub managers and staff will transfer to Wizard.

Wizard managing director Chris Hutt said: "The investment will help us to develop the business considerably over the next 18 months. We will be getting quality sites in prosperous trading areas, each with bags of potential and really good prospects.

"In trading terms it will increase our business by more than 30 per cent."

He said all the sites were substantial managed houses in strong trading locations, and his management team was confident its "focused, entrepreneurial approach can drive them forward in terms of sales, profits and customer appeal".

Voyager chief executive John Denning said: "We are working on a two-year plan to convert around 850 of the 982 managed houses we acquired from Bass to lease, while selling around 130 pubs which don't fit our profile for leased pubs. These are likely to be sold onwards to managed pub operators.

"There has been a lot of interest in our pubs, which are at the top of our sector in terms of sales and beer volumes, and the 13 we are selling to Wizard are all sites with excellent future prospects."

Wizard plans to develop the pubs over the next year or so and has already set aside a significant budget to achieve this. It also plans to strengthen its operations team.

Mr Hutt said: "Overall, we are committed to building a team of winning people all of whom are able and determined to drive our business forward, and help us to become the best company running unbranded managed pubs and bars."

During the last year Wizard has invested more than £10m on refurbishments and acquisitions. While Wizard has built its reputation on developing popular community pubs, it has opened four individually designed cutting-edge cafÈ-bars, and obtaining its first late licence.

Related stories:

Voyager considers bids for pub package (August 13, 2001)

Profile of Voyager Pub Group (June 27, 2001)

Former Bass managers to take on Voyager leases (June 7, 2001)