Punch sells two freeholds to TRG
Punch Taverns has sold two freeholds to the Restaurant Group for £1.5m.
Both sites are already tenanted by the Restaurant Group's Blubecker brand.
The sale is in line with the Punch policy of offering sitting tenants the chance to buy their pubs. The move also underlines the Restaurant Group's commitment to running pub restaurants. Earlier this week it reported its Brunning & Price operation, which it acquired in October 2007, "delivered a superb performance with growth in like-for-like sales, revenues and profits".
The company's other pub brand, Blubeckers found the going "tougher and this pattern persisted throughout the year".
The company, which has 44 pub restaurants in total, stated: "This was due, in part, to its geographical concentration in the South East and also to its price point which, combined with a more formal style of offering, means that it has less 'everyday appeal'. "Where feasible, during 2009 we will be aligning the Blubeckers style of offering more closely to the less formal style of Brunning & Price as we believe that this will afford greater operational flexibility and will also appeal to a wider potential customer base."
The Restaurant Group planned to open between five and ten more pubs in 2008 but opened only two in the end. It stated: "The main reason behind our decision to scale back the openings in 2008 was due to our assessment, as we moved through the first half of the year, that the pub sector was likely to come under more pressure over the next year or so. "Whilst this pressure may lead to further competitive discounting and pricing pressure in the near term it will, we believe, yield some potentially lucrative opportunities to grow our pub restaurant business in the future.
"Accordingly we have, for the time being, decided to 'keep our powder dry' in the expectation that over the next couple of years we will have the opportunity to use our resources to greater effect. Longer-term we believe that this business has the potential to grow significantly."
