New trio of steakhouses for M&B

Mitchells & Butlers (M&B) is opening its first Miller & Carter steakhouses in 18 months this month.

The company is opening three new Miller & Carter sites. The Mountbatten in Poole, Dorset, opened last week while the Silver Jubilee in Leigh-on-Sea opened this week. M&B is also converting the Sussex Potter in Lancing, West Sussex, to a Miller & Carter which is expected to reopen on 26 November.

All three openings are former Whitbread pubs that M&B acquired as part of its September asset swap, which saw 44 pubs added to its estate in return for a smaller number of hotels passing over to Whitbread.

Around a dozen Miller & Cater steakhouses were developed out of former Whitbread sites when the company acquired 239 venues in August 2006.

The company opened the sites within a three-month period and has spent 18 months focused on perfecting the brand offer.

One Miller & Carter, a site in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, was turned back into a Harvester.

Miller & Carter is the brainchild of former M&B retaurant division boss Tony Hughes who retired at the start of this year.