Red Oak acquires trio of Marston’s pubs
Red Oak was founded in 2011 by Mark Grunnell and Aaron Brown with an estate mainly concentrated in the south, south west, north west and the Midlands, comprising more than 200 largely leased and tenanted pubs.
On the latest acquisition, co-founder and chief executive Grunnell said: “This is a great start to the year with our continuing acquisition programme, enhancing our growing pub estate.
“By focusing on multiple and single site pub packages, we are evolving our diverse portfolio, providing unique and flexible pub opportunities within the sector.
“These three quality pubs – two located in the Midlands and one in the south-west, complement our pub portfolio and we are looking forward to welcoming the new tenant partners to our business.”
Expanding estate
The three pubs are:
Bird in Hand, Atherstone, Warwickshire
Black Horse, Sheepy Magna, Warwickshire
Railway, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire
Property and acquisitions director Graeme Bunn handled the purchase of the new sites, which are all operated free of tie.
He said: “Delighted to see three more pubs added to our expanding estate.
“Our team, including Freeths and Fleurets, worked swiftly and enabled the purchase to be completed in under four weeks with agreed heads of terms.”
In December last year, Red Oak refurbished the General Elliott pub in Croft, Leicestershire as part of a joint investment with the business and licensee Henry Coakley.
The makeover included new furniture, flooring and bar layout at the 18th century pub as well as new signage and lighting. There was also a new draught beer range and wine list introduced.
Finance feature
In September 2022, Grunnell issued advice for operators on finding the right funding partner in an article he wrote for The Morning Advertiser.
He outlined how a number of core areas of how Red Oak is run as these had played a key role in the funding the business had secured.
This followed an announcement by the company in August that it had secured a six year £110m whole loan, arranged by Excellion Capital to push forward with the group’s growth plans.
The debt facility refinanced Red Oak’s existing debt and provided new capital to drive future expansion with £50m serving as an acquisition facility for new assets and investment including capital expenditure into the existing estate.
