Ox owner sets up pubco
The owner of award-winning North Yorkshire food pub the Durham Ox has set up a company, Provenance Inns, to acquire new sites.
The company has been set up by Michael Ibbotson and new business partner Chris Blundell, a regular Ox customer, who also supplies it with fresh produce from his farm.
Provenance Inns has already acquired three new pubs in north Yorkshire.
It has bought the Oak Tree Inn in Helperby from Punch Taverns, the Farmer's Inn in Brafferton and the Carpenter's Arms, Felixkirk, from private buyers.
The new company has appointed Kate Robey as head of operations. Robey started her career working at Terence Conran's Le Pont De La Tour restaurant in London. Provenance bosses Ibbotson and Blundell say they are looking forward to forming a collection of "village inns, in villages you would like to live in".
Ibbotson added: "As our company name suggests, we will be concentrating on the provenance of our amazing, locally-sourced Yorkshire produce, as well as the local attractions, tourism, architecture, people and history that make up the local area.
"I think the Durham Ox is a real reflection of what the British inn was, and is, about. Inns can still have high standards of service and professional kitchens without losing charm."
The Punch pub, the Oak Tree Inn, has been closed for about a year.
Provenance will make a sizeable investment in the site, knocking down an unsympathetic 1970s extension while creating a courtyard garden, extending the kitchen and converting an on-site barn in a restaurant.
Ibbotson has owned the Durham Ox, in Crayke, for 10 years.
It was voted AA Pub of the Year in 2008.
