Pub deals expected as sector gears up for smoking clearout
Several key pub deals will be unveiled in the next month as leading operators move to 'tidy up' their estates prior to next year's smoking ban in England and Wales.
ThePublican.com understands that the deals, which are in their final stages, will see companies offloading a sizeable number of sites that are either landlocked or have limited outside space and won't prove viable after next summer.
Details of the transactions and the companies involved remain under wraps, but the scope of the deals is said to reveal the depth of concern felt by senior pub company executives regarding the new rules governing smoking in pubs and restaurants.
Once completed they will add to a number of sell-offs that have seen operators bringing to the market sites they believe will not prove economic when the smoking ban hits next summer.
Enterprise Inns 'tidied up' its estate by selling more than 750 'tail-end' pubs to Admiral Taverns in a deal worth £318m and Greene King is currently in the process of offloading more than 150 pubs in the South of England that it deems to be unworkable under a smoking ban.
Adrian Fawcett, Punch Taverns' chief operating officer, told thePublican.com that at least 90 per cent of its estate had facilities that could cater for smokers.
This still leaves more than 500 Punch pubs that are landlocked or where outside areas are unsuitable for smoking customers - and offers the potential for a sizeable deal.
While some operators have decided to offload pubs they regard as unviable under a smoking ban, the likes of Admiral Taverns and InnDeed - the Dawnay Day-backed outfit headed by ex-InnSpired boss Peter Brook - remain confident they can find quality assets in the current marketplace and make a go of them.
