Acquisitions look set to shape trade
Predictions that deals will continue to shape the licensed property market look like coming true, with more pub groups becoming acquisitive.
At last month's Pub Strategy and Investment Conference, Christie & Co director Colin Wellstead said although many deals had already been done this year, including Enterprise Inn's purchases of Voyager Pub Group and Unique Pub Company, the market looked set to continue being fluid with groups and individual pubs being bought and sold.
Now Scottish & Newcastle (S&N) Pub Enterprises has announced it is planning to grow its nationwide estate through acquisitions. It is looking for sites in good locations that it can then add value to through capital expenditure and the appointment of a good lessee.
In the last nine months S&N has acquired and developed 13 individual sites, with a value of more than £6m. Another seven purchases are due to be completed shortly.
The recent acquisitions, which included the Buck's Head in Strathaven, Scotland, and the Wheatsheaf in Cheadle, Staffordshire (pictured), brought S&N's total UK estate to nearly 1,100 pubs.
Enterprise Inns is also continuing to churn its estate and has put 150 of the ex-Whitbread and S&N pubs it bought last summer on the market with Fleurets.
Gordon Harrison, operations director at Enterprise Inns, said: "We have an outstanding range of properties available. They provide prime opportunities for entrepreneurial licensees keen to build up their own business."
The pubs' existing tenants have been consulted on the marketing of the properties. They have been offered the opportunity to apply early and are guaranteed an interview.
SFI group is also looking to expand and has retained Glasgow-based agent Creevy LLH to source and acquire new properties in Scotland for the development of concepts including Slug and Lettuce, Bar Med and Litten Tree.
SFI is particularly interested in expanding in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dundee - something Alan Creevy from Creevy LLH said was increasingly unusual.
He said: "There has been a slowdown in the expansion plans of the traditional major pub operators in Scotland and SFI wishes to reverse this trend as it believes there are considerable opportunities for quality businesses in Scotland."
On a smaller scale, acquisitive Manchester brewer Hydes has bought two more pubs for just under £1m bringing the total acquired in the last 18 months to 10.
It is continuing to move into south Cheshire with the purchase of the Bulls Head in Congleton and has also bought the Stanton House in Chirk, near Wrexham.
