Greene King eyes 70 more Hungry Horses

Hungry Horse, the Greene King value brand, is set to increase by another 70 or so sites, according to chief executive Rooney Anand.

The brand has already expanded by more than 50% since April 2008 — there were fewer than 100 three years ago and now Greene King has around 150.

Speaking at the Numis Leisure Conference, Anand said that reinvestment opportunities are only two-thirds complete for Hungry Horse.

Last year, Greene King revealed that the focus was shifting to greenfield and new-build sites for openings — an application was received this week for a new-build site on the retail park in Stoke's Trentham Lakes development.

Anand also revealed that the company had a five-year investment plan for its Old English Inns division of coaching inns and historic pubs. The division has the best uninvested like-for-like sales within the company's managed segment.

Greene King has also begun a roll-out of its Eating Inn managed brand, which has been developed with its Belhaven Scottish estate — MA understands the Robin Hood in Cherry Hinton, Cambs, is one of the first conversions to the brand. Anand said Greene King had a "very pragmatic and flexible" approach to adding 200 managed pubs to its 900 existing sites. It included new builds, acquisitions and reverse transfers of venues from tenanted.

Anand said the company had experienced a good credit crunch in relative terms, and had started 2007 "with a strong set of cards and we have played them well". "The period has thrown up opportunities that we have exploited well," he added. "Our results have been driven by trading rather than financial engineering."

He said that the company was focused on a smaller, higher quality tenanted estate. "The tied model is enduring, but tenants with entrepreneurial flair won't be enough anymore, companies will have to provide support to help even the most talented." Anand said that the company's confidence in its estate was reflected in its £1.5m "Proper Pub" advertising campaign.