London Town: tenants first
London Town, the Aim-listed commercial property business than now owns 225 tenanted pubs, is determined to become a "tenant-centred" pub company, according to its new chief executive Mark Crowther.
The company, which bought the majority of its pubs in November last year, is determined to "throw its arms" around its tenants and create "an honest and open culture".
Crowther said: "We want to act and think from the tenant's point of view, telling them that London Town will be a stable home going forward."
He added that London Town, whose pubs are managed by County Estate Management, plans to take a pro-active approach to its pubs, offering support in areas such as food and wine range development.
"There is good upside from these pubs because they've had absolutely no attention for years," he said. "We plan to be very pro-active through County Estate and they have an appetite for that.
"One of the big challenges is to throw our arms around our pubs."
Crowther said the focus was on becoming a "good pub company" and London Town was close to finalising the terms of its major lease agreements - a five-year tenancy and a longer-term assignable lease.
Crowther, who co-founded the Front Room high-street managed operator, added:
"We have the appetite and backers to grow. We're proving we're good for the money with quite a good deal flow.
"I take my hat off to Gary Landesberg and the size and scale to which he's grown Admiral Taverns.
"Admiral is a big, credible number-three tenanted operator. I'm absolutely certain Admiral will go on growing. But there are plenty more pubs out there [to buy]."
Crowther's views on:
The attractions of buying pubs:
"They have this strong asset-backed nature with the yields coming out of them still pretty good. There's good upside in some of these pubs because they've had absolutely no attention in years."
The ideal scenario:
"Our dream ticket is to buy a pub with a ramshackle old field with a couple of burnt-out cars on it; if we carve off the field we can still keep a great pub on the site with a car park and garden facilities.
At the same time we want [to make] the core business better - we want to be a good pub company going forward."
Moving some pubs over to alternative use:
"There are some pubs where it would be wrong for us to place some naïve tenant and watch their savings go up the wall. There are some pubs that are not going to work - demographics and lifestyles have moved on. It would do us no favours as a company [to fill these pubs] and do licensees no favours. Why would any sensible businessman want to create a situation like that?"
