Bravo Inns buys two Punch pubs

Northern England based pub group Bravo Inns has acquired two pubs from Punch Taverns, bringing its total estate to 21 pubs.

The pubs, which were bought for an undisclosed sum, are the Millstone Inn in Golborne near Warrington, Cheshire, and the Tippings Arms in Wigan.

Bravo Inns was set up by managing director Ken Buckley and business partner Phil Dearden in 2007 after the sale of their previous pub company Bold to Calco Midlands. Bravo Inns is backed by venture capital investors Albion Ventures, which has so far put £8.5m into the business.

Buckley started in the trade 45 years ago working for Greenalls.

He said: "These pub are in our heartland. We have a concept called Priceless Inns that centres on sports-driven, wet-led community pubs that are price competitive. We breathe life back into closed and under-invested in pubs. The Tippings was closed when we bought it and the Millstone was open just a couple of days a week."

Both pubs will be completely refurbished, with the Millstone Inn re-opening on September 24 and the Tippings Arms in mid-October.