What the Sunday papers said

Related tags Public house Six continents

The Sunday TimesSir Ian Prosser, chairman of Six Continents, is to delay his retirement to oversee the break-up of the £5 billion hotel and pub...

The Sunday Times

Sir Ian Prosser, chairman of Six Continents, is to delay his retirement to oversee the break-up of the £5 billion hotel and pub group into two seperate companies. Chief executive Tim Clarke will go with the pubs. Finance director Richard North will head up the hotels business.

HOOTERS, the US chain of bars famous for "its buxom waitresses in tight T-shirts", wants to set up its own airline.

SWEETS and drinks giant Cadbury Schweppes is preparing a £3 billion bid for Adams, the chewing-gum group that has been put up for sale by Pfizer.

The Sunday Telegraph

...also reports the Six Continents demerger. Roger Carr, currently a non-executive within the group, will go with the pubs side of the business as chairman. The 6C pubs and restaurants, formerly part of the Bass estate, will be floated on the stock market witha value in excess of £2 billion.

The Business

ON a familiar theme, The Business reports that Six Continents will seek acquisitions for both its hotel and pubs businesses once the two divisions have been seperated. The share-price leapt 7.5 per cent on the news last Friday, to 587p.

PIZZA Express chief David Page is in talks with private equity houses to find a backer for an estimated £300m management buyout bid.

The Observer

THE four biggest UK pub companies will be the subject of a formal complaint to the Office of Fair Trading. Camra, the group that champions real ale, is alleging that the large pub companies have forced prices so low that brewers are going out of business.

Pub companies are selling their beer to tenants for up to twice what they paid the brewers for it. More than 40 breweries have closed down in the last decade.

PARK Place Entertainment, the world's most powerful gambling organisation and owner of Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, is in talks to open a huge casino at the controversial Millennium Dome site in Greenwich, London.

The Mail on Sunday

THE Financial Mail section highlights the recent sale of shares worth £3m by JD Wetherspoon director Tony Lowrie, following a rally in the price.. He sold at 322p. This was still cheap compared with other directors' sales over the past year.

Managing director John Hutson sold 84,000 at 388p in April, having already sold 11,600 in November at 390p.

The Independent on Sunday

THE Youth Hostels Association, provider of cheap country holidays to generations of young backpackers, has put 10 of its hostels up for sale in an attempt to cope with a multi-million-pound cash crisis.

ENRIQUE Varela, a Spanish-born licensee who has run the Fox Inn in the village of Hallaton, Leicestershire, for 11 years speaks about the prospect of a ban on fox hunting:

"My wife and I are very happy here and I don't like to feel that Hallaton and places like it are under threat. That's what seems to be happening with this Government. Plenty of people who hunt come into the pub - it's very much a place for locals and I like it that way."

The Sunday Express

PIZZA Hut is planning to go up against McDonald's and Burger King for a bigger slice of the fast food market by opening seperate counters in existing sites, and by launching dedicated units in shopping malls and railway stations. It will open 75 restaurants next year, creating 3,000 jobs.

BRITAIN'S smaller exporting companies are starting to trade in euros and claim it has already been a massive boost to business, a survey will reveal this week.

Related topics Other operators

Property of the week

Follow us

Pub Trade Guides

View more