15th Project William pub
Leicester brewer and retailer Everards has just opened its 15th Project William pub — which allows greater flexibility on cask ales — and plans to open four more in the coming months.
The family brewer is also in talks with five other microbrewers about opening more examples of this style of pub.
The 15th Project William site, the Albion in Ampthill, is run by Bedfordshire microbrewery B&T and opened on 14 April.
The Albion is B&T's fifth pub: it already runs the privately-leased Brewery Tap in Shefford, the freehold Globe at Dunstable, the privately-leased Wellington Arms in Bedford, and Charles Wells' Elm Tree in Cambridge.
Everards has invested £375,000 in buying the Albion, a former Punch site, and carrying out an extensive refurbishment, while B&T invested £22,000 in fixtures and fittings.
B&T will pay an annual rent of around £30,000, and expects to at least recoup its investment in year one.
Mike Desquesnes, joint owner of B&T, said buying the pub's freehold themselves was not on the agenda — banks were unwilling to lend despite the firm's successful track record in running pubs. The new pub has 12 handpulls, and does not offer food. In its first three weeks, beer has accounted for 85% of the sales mix.
The scheme was set up in 2007 — Everards partners with microbrewers or cask-ale specialists to find a freehold property.
It mainly buys and refurbishes closed pubs, then tenants run them under a three-year agreement that relaxes the tie on cask-conditioned ales. This provides microbrewers a direct route to market for their own beers.
Summer openings
• The Albion in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, is run in partnership with Osset Brewery, and is set to reopen in June
• The Woodman, Ripley, Derbyshire, was already part of Everard's core tenanted estate, but will re-open under the Project William banner with microbrewer Amber Ales at the end of May
• The Park Tavern, Warwick, will open with Slaughterhouse Brewery as tenants in July
• The Five Lamps in Derby was also part of Everard's core estate,
but will reopen in June as a Project William pub. It will be run by a cask-ale expert, not a microbrewery.
