Urban opens Huff Cap Inn
Urban & Country Leisure, the multiple operator headed by Ross Sanders, opened its latest pub last Thursday.
The new opening is a former Punch Taverns freehold, the Huff Cap Inn at Great Alne, Warwickshire, which was bought by a private investor with a view to leasing it to Urban.
The pub has undergone an £850,000 refurbishment and is Urban's 15th pub. Sander said: "It is stunning - we took nearly £9,000 on our first Sunday.
"We've tried to put a greater emphasis on the wet trade and so it has a strong bar area and a great outside space — the trade split will be around 55:45 dry to wet.
"The pub also has its own smokehouse where we smoke all the meat we use in the pub and even smoke local people's meat for free."
The company has another three openings lined up. It is undertaking a £250,000 investment on a Greene King site, the Plough in Cobham, Surrey, which will re-open in six weeks' time.
Urban is also involved in a £450,000 refurbishment of a Scottish & Newcastle Pub Company (S&NPC) venue in Banbury, Oxfordshire, which will re-open in 12 weeks. The pub is called the New Flyer but will re-open as the Old Auctioneer.
It is also currently on site at the Globe Hotel in Warwick, which was acquired for £1.5m, but which is now seeing a £1.1m investment that will involve it being re-named the Lazy Cow.
Urban sold the free-of-tie lease on the Greyhound at Finchhamstead, Berkshire earlier this year for in excess of £500,000. The buyer, a private investor, has retained Urban to operate the pub on a management contract.
