Acquisitive Batham's nets Welsh pub
An expanding West Midlands brewer and pub owner has turned to North Wales for its first pub purchase for three years. The 125-year-old Batham's Brewery, based at Brierley Hill, has bought its 10th pub, located a two-hour drive away from its base. Y Giler Arms at Pentrefoelas, near Bettws-y-Coed, has been bought privately for an undisclosed sum through property agent Robert Barry & Co. It has a bar, lounge, games room, seven letting bedrooms, five of which are en-suite, plus a lake for coarse fishing. Set in six acres alongside the River Merddwr, the pub isalso listed as a Camping and Caravanning Club-approved site with space for five touring caravans. Estate director Mat Batham said: "We have built up a fund to buy more pubs and have been actively looking for four or five more. "We have been looking in our existing trading area for highly visible pubs on main roads that are part of their local community but most have been bought up by the pubcos. "The opportunity came to buy the Giler Arms which is known to thousands of Midlanders who travel along the A5 to North Wales and we went for it. "We have made no secret of the fact that we are looking for more pubs and will continue to explore possibilities in the Cotswolds, Somerset, North Devon and also Derbyshire. "In fact anywhere within two hours of our base." "It's a new departure for us and the pub will be run as a tenancy not as a managed house like our other pubs. "We will, of course, be introducing our famous mild and bitter beers there." The pub's tenants are John and Sue Cowlishaw, who have moved from the Batham's-owned Lamp Tavern in Dudley.
