7 Gary Landesberg
owner, Admiral Taverns (6)
Why he is on the list:
Landesberg is the man who has presided over the rapid growth of Admiral Taverns. From a standing start four years ago, Admiral is now the UK's third-biggest leased and tenanted pubco with more than 2,000 sites thanks to a series of block purchases. Landesberg has set up a full bells-and-whistles pub company, headed jointly by sector veterans Lynn D'Arcy and Andy Clifford. Large numbers of Admiral pubs have seen capital investment while 300 others last year were sold on, often to alternative use.
What the past year has held:
Admiral refinanced last year with new loans to provide a £1bn "war chest" for new acquisitions. But the credit crunch and doubts over the economy led to Landesberg's announcement that there would be no further new pub deals for the immediate future — unless they are large ones containing a quartile of decent-quality pubs.
Challenges ahead:
Landesberg reckoned two months ago that it will be a year before financial calm returns, so it looks like being a period of consolidation for Admiral.
The focus now is on cash generation and paying down debt. One of the biggest challenges for Admiral will relate to what happens if the commercial property market softens markedly, making pubs harder to off-load at book value or above. In the meantime, the Admiral core estate may need a degree of nursing through this difficult period as beer volumes continue to decline.
