Little-known pub group buys historic brewery
A little-known pubco has bought Walsall's historic Highgate Brewery.
Global Star, which operates around 100 pubs in the West Midlands, paid an undisclosed sum to Aston Manor Brewery - the owner of Highgate.
Global Star will add Highgate's nine pubs to its estate and also plans to expand brewery capacity to supply Highgate beers to the entire estate.
Global Star is owned by three directors - Wayne Toon and brothers Kulvinder and Harvinder Uppal - and runs a tenanted estate of mainly community and town-centre pubs, most of them freeholds.
Toon said the deal with Aston Manor had taken around eight weeks to finalise: "It is ultimate thing for us to own Highgate so that we can service our own pubs."
He added: "We will also be investing around £500,000 in new bottling plant and new kegging plant at the brewery to increase production. The brewery is currently running at around 25,000 barrels a year - half of its production capacity."
Toon said the acquisition will allow Global Star to "tidy up the estate" and also create the opportunity to convert some of the outlets into gastropubs.
"We will be introducing beer with food at a majority of our pubs."
Under the deal, Highgate will continue to supply beers to Aston Manor, which specialises in packaged beers to the off-trade. Aston Manor, which is owned by Peter Ellis - the son of former Aston Villa FC owner Doug Ellis, does not brew its own beers and prior to buying Highgate in 1995 had contracted out brewing to outside suppliers.
At that time, Highgate looked on the verge of extinction when Bass decided to close what was then its smallest brewery.
A team led by current brewery director Neil Bain organised a £600,000 management buyout that transferred ownership to the nearby Aston Manor Brewery. Recently, rumours have circulated that the management team at Highgate wanted to be financially free of Aston Manor.
