Young’s to open new pubs in Bristol and Cambridge

The company, which won Best Food Offer (51+ sites) at The Publican Awards​ earlier this year, has exchanged contracts on Bristol pub the River Station and will open a new site in Cambridge that “may well” join its Geronimo Inns portfolio, The Morning Advertiser ​(MA​) understands.

Young’s and Geronimo Inns group executive chef Chris Knights told MA​: “[The Cambridge site] will be ready for the new financial year. It’s pushing our reach further afield. We’re starting to broaden our horizons.”

New approach to acquisitions​

While the company would always look to take on more pubs in London, Young’s was taking a “new approach” to where it looked for acquisitions, said Knights.

He explained: “It’s tough in London. Young’s will always look to buy pubs in London but it’s a tight market to try and get hold of a property.

“When you’re looking at a business within London, you could probably get two – out in the Cotswolds for example – for the same price.”

Geronimo turnaround​

With Geronimo Inns profits back on track after turning around a 1.4% decline in like-for-like sales over the first half of last year into a 3.5% rise, Knights said the brand, which Young’s bought in 2010, had been “reinvigorated”.

He said: “It was confused for a while, so we’ve realigned it and reinvigorated it with the same strategy we have with Young’s pubs.

“We’re already seeing some great successes from that – places like the Builders Arms in Chelsea are becoming famous at a local level with proper pub food and that’s what we’re trying to do more of.”

In a statement earlier this week (9 November), Young's CEO Patrick Dardis warned that the Government's business rate revaluation, which comes into force next April, could be severely detrimental to the nation's pubs.​