Its 50 sites, all wet-led and run as managed partnerships, are mainly found in its home city of Brighton and in London with recent openings taking the firm into Croydon and Norwich.
With an average age of just 28, its partners share not only the youth but the culture and values of their customer base, delivering lively, mostly late-night, music-led venues that embrace and celebrate diversity.
Welcoming for all
That especially includes active support for the transgender community, providing safe and welcoming spaces for all – and it’s a market that demands constant innovation.
The great success story of the past year has been the Pubbl loyalty app, which already has 110,000 users and has boosted return visits and spend across the estate. A new pre-booking system is also helping to drive growth.
Laine works closely with its partners, supporting them to develop themselves as well as their businesses, offering flexible agreements that allow creativity at point of service.
Expansion plans
Behind the personalities at the bar, the company is very much data-driven, generating the information and insight that can help pubs improve their profitability. An AI analyst has recently been recruited to work on how to better predict trading patterns.
And while the company is very much a late-night operation, franchised kitchens give many of the venues a food option that keeps them busy earlier in the day.
After spending £2m on improving its pubs last year, nine more major schemes are under way, developing under-used spaces and adding more gender-neutral toilets, and there are plans, too, to expand its estate further beyond its cosmopolitan heartlands.
