Admiral pubs to see £50m investment

Admiral Taverns, the tenanted operator of 2,400 pubs headed by Gary Landesberg, is to invest £50m in its estate in the coming three years. The...

Admiral Taverns, the tenanted operator of 2,400 pubs headed by Gary Landesberg, is to invest £50m in its estate in the coming three years.

The company, which acquired 869 pubs from Punch Taverns earlier this year, has already invested £11m in its estate over the past few years. The new investment money will see an average of £50,000 spent on every pub in the estate.

Joint managing director Lynne D'arcy said: "The pubs that we keep we want to develop and we now have a very aggressive capital-expenditure programme. The money will be invested over a three-year period, with around £12m spent in the first year and investment cranked up after that.

"For some pubs we're talking about spending £30,000

on a sparkle job with new

signage and redecoration. But we have spent as much as £300,000. Some of the spend will go on preparing the

pubs to go over to lease -

we wouldn't, for example, rentalise a new roof."

News of Admiral's capital investment programme comes as the company also ramps up support for tenants on the food side of businesses.

Stephen Gilmour has been recruited as the company's first development chef/trainer, reporting directly

to Admiral's head of food development, Sam Pedder, who joined the company earlier in the year.

roadshows

Admiral is holding a series of roadshows, focusing on business ideas for their tenants and food solutions in particular.

The roadshow dates and venues are as follows: Emirates Stadium, Arsenal (Tuesday 11 Sept, 11am-4pm); Reebok Stadium, Bolton (Tuesday 25 Sept, 11am-4pm); Bristol City FC, Bristol (11am-4pm); Villa Park, Birmingham (Tuesday 2 Oct, 11am-4pm); St James Park, Newcastle (Thursday 4 Oct, 10am-3pm); Yorkshire Cricket Ground (Tuesday, 20 Nov).