21/11/2023 10:01:00
The boards of City Pubs and Young's have reached an agreement on the terms of a recommended cash and share acquisition to which Young's will acquire City Pubs, reports Pub & Bar. The deal values Clive Watson's City Pubs at £162m. It operates a predominantly freehold portfolio of 50 premium pubs and bedrooms. Once the sale goes ahead, which City Pubs plans to strongly recommend to its shareholders, Young's will acquire a high-quality pub and bedroom portfolio of scale, allowing the pubco to increase its managed trading estate to 279 pubs. It will also substantially increase the number of bedrooms within the Young's estate by 25%, taking the total to 1,065 bedrooms.
The owner of Center Parcs has abandoned plans to sell the holiday resort group for more than £4bn, after investors proved unwilling to commit to a big bet on the UK leisure sector at a time of higher interest rates and inflation, advises the Financial Times. Canadian private equity group Brookfield has called off its attempt to offload the whole business, which operates six woodland holiday parks across the UK and Ireland, according to people familiar with the matter. The high profile collapse of the sale process points to the difficulty of completing large deals in the current market, where financing is expensive and even the biggest players are reluctant to take substantial risks.
Insight consultancy KAM have partnered with the BII (British Institute of Innkeeping) to launch the ultimate Pub Roadmap: a robust and practical toolkit for the evolving pub industry. The report states that pubs still command the biggest share of consumer spend (29%) compared with other hospitality sectors such as fast food (16%), delivery (14%) or casual dining (5%) according to data from Hospitality Data Insights (HDI). Caterer Licensee Hotelier News reports that share of consumer spend across core hospitality channels has remained relatively flat year-on-year, with a slight migration from pubs, casual dining and other restaurants, towards fast-food/takeaway and coffee & sandwich shops. KAM points to the impact of the cost-of-living crisis being potentially at play here with people changing how they're spending their money.
Loungers says it is on track to open its projected 34 new sites in current financial year, with four sites having opened since its 200th Lounge opening on 13 September. The all-day restaurant and bar operator has recently opened three new Lounge sites which are in Louth in Lincolnshire, Carlisle, and Hexham as well as a Cosy Club in Oxford, its 36th venue under the Cosy Club brand, advises The Restaurant. "Our accelerated site roll-out plan remains firmly on track, and we're delighted with the four new sites that we've opened in the few weeks," says Nick Collins, CEO of Loungers.
The average cost of a pint of draught lager increased 12.5% in the year to October 2023 as pubs and brewers "struggle to survive". According to the latest figures for the Office for National Statistics (ONS) the cost of a pint of draught larger stood at £4.67 as of last month, up from £4.15 in October last year, an upswing of 12.5%. Month-on-month lager prices saw a 1% hike, up from £4.62 in September. Draught bitter prices also saw increases during this period, up by 9.8% year-on-year, from £3.54 last year to in October this year £3.89. Month-on-month bitter costs rose by 1.3% from £3.84 in September. Society of Independent Brewer (SIBA) head of comms Neil Walker told The Morning Advertiser rising costs has created a "tough" environment for pubs and brewers alike.
Ian Payne MBE is to step down from his role as chairman at Britain's biggest pub company Stonegate Group and retire from the industry at the end of January 2024. Payne, 70, founded Stonegate with 333 pubs 13 years ago and has since grown the business to 4,500 sites which employ more than 16,000 people, advises The Caterer. He said leading the company had been the "greatest privilege" of his 50-year career. Payne began managing his first pub in 1973 before rising through the ranks at Whitbread, Guinness and Bass Taverns. He led the buyout of the majority of the Whitbread pub business as chief executive of Laurel Pub Company before becoming chairman of Bay Restaurant Group and City Pub Company. In 2010, he founded Stonegate with the acquisition of 333 sites from Mitchells and Butlers. It is now the largest pub and bar company in Britain with brands including Slug & Lettuce, Be at One and Popworld.
The Restaurant advises that Aldi is opening a bottomless pigs in blankets restaurant this Christmas.