Pub chain
Encyclopedia
Chef & Brewer
Chef & Brewer is a chain of around 127 licensed traditional pub restaurants in the United Kingdom, owned by Punch Taverns.-History:Following the merger of Grand Metropolitan and Guinness, to form Diageo in 1991, Chef & Brewer pubs were bought by Scottish & Newcastle in 1993 in a part cash, part...
, Wetherspoons
Wetherspoons
J D Wetherspoon plc is a British pub chain based in Watford. Founded as a single pub in 1979 by Tim Martin, the company now owns 815 outlets. The chain champions cask ale, low prices, long opening hours, and no music. The company also operates the Lloyds No...
, Walkabout, Taylor Walker Pubs
Taylor Walker Pubs
Taylor Walker is a chain of around 106 licensed pubs in the United Kingdom, owned by Punch Taverns. They are known for serving cask ale, sharing plates and platters and British classics such as hand battered cod and pies which are among the most popular choices....
and All Bar One
All Bar One
All Bar One is a chain of bars in the UK, owned and operated by Mitchells and Butlers plc which was part of the Six Continents group until 2003....
. Pubs in the chain are typically branded with the same name, however the former "Firkin
Firkin Brewery
The Firkin Brewery was a chain of pubs in the United Kingdom. The original UK chain is now defunct, but a number of pubs operate under the Firkin name in other countries. The chain took its name from the firkin, an old English unit of volume....
" pubs tended to be variations on a theme including the word Firkin in the title. Wetherspoons pubs have individual names, with the Wetherspoons brand prominently displayed.
Types
In the United KingdomUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, there are two types of pub chain, reflecting the ownership of the pub and the style of operations. Pubs are either tenanted or managed.
Pub chains such as Punch Taverns
Punch Taverns
Punch Taverns plc is the largest pub and bar operator in the United Kingdom, with around 6,800 leased, tenanted and managed pubs. It is headquartered in the traditional brewing centre of Burton upon Trent in Staffordshire...
and Enterprise Inns own thousands of tenanted pubs which are not branded and retain uniqueness.
Pub chains operating managed houses are frequently run as brands, located near a high street but rarely in predominantly residential areas.
Multiple-held pubs do exist in countries other than the United Kingdom, but due to most countries having different accepted systems of ownership and supply, they do not hold anywhere near the level of control over the market as they do in the UK.
Companies
Atmosphere Bars and Clubs Ltd: The "Chicago Rock Cafe" and "Jumpin Jaks" night-club/pub brands were created by Luminar LeisureLuminar Leisure
Luminar Group Holdings plc is a public limited company operating leisure and entertainment venues throughout the United Kingdom. Luminar currently specialises in nightclubs, bars and restaurants but is struggling due to difficult market conditions, it has recently started struggling to pay its...
in 1989, and the Chicago Rock Cafe concept meant the Luminar group became the most successful leisure company of the early 1990s. However, the group found the night-club/pub concept increasingly difficult to keep in profit, and in December 2006 created 3D Entertainment, in a £79m sale and leaseback
Leaseback
Leaseback, short for sale-and-leaseback, is a financial transaction, where one sells an asset and leases it back for the long-term; therefore, one continues to be able to use the asset but no longer owns it...
deal in which it retained a 49% share, to take over the night-club/pub brands, which were restructured into around 55 Chicago Rock Cafes with 15 other sites, including Jumpin Jaks and Mortimers pubs. 3D Entertainment couldn't make the brands successful, and the company went into administration in February 2010, with some of the Chicago Rock Cafe brands being taken over by Atmosphere Bars & Clubs, and other sites being bought by JD Wetherspoons. There are 21 Chicago Rock Cafes in locations all over England.
Barracuda Group: Varsity, Barracuda Bars, Juniper Inns, Cape and Smith & Jones are owned by the Barracuda Group, which is based in Marlow
Marlow, Buckinghamshire
Marlow is a town and civil parish within Wycombe district in south Buckinghamshire, England...
, Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....
.
Hobgoblin: The Hobgoblin pubs are a chain in London and the south of England. They were owned by Wychwood Brewery
Wychwood Brewery
Wychwood Brewery is an English brewery founded by Paddy Glenny in 1983, and located in the town of Witney, Oxfordshire in the United Kingdom. It is owned by Refresh UK, a subsidiary of Marstons plc...
until 2002.
Laurel Pub Company: Laurel (based in Luton
Luton
Luton is a large town and unitary authority of Bedfordshire, England, 30 miles north of London. Luton and its near neighbours, Dunstable and Houghton Regis, form the Luton/Dunstable Urban Area with a population of about 250,000....
) acquired several pub chains using funding arranged by Robert Tchenguiz
Robert Tchenguiz
Robert Tchenguiz, born 9 September 1960, and his older brother, Vincent Tchenguiz, are British businessmen.Vincent Tchenguiz, a British entrepreneur born in October 1956, is a native of Tehran. He hails from an Iraqi-Jewish background. His family left Iraq in 1948 and settled in Iran...
, including buying Bar Med and Slug & Lettuce from the administrators of SFI Group plc in June 2005 for £80m and also Yates's
Yates's
Yates's is a pub chain, founded as Yates Wine Lodge in Oldham, in North West England by Peter and Simon Yates in 1884.-Business:There are over 70 Yates's pubs or bars in the United Kingdom however, there is no longer one in Oldham. The site of the original Yates' Wine Lodge is marked by a plaque on...
who were based in Bolton
Bolton
Bolton is a town in Greater Manchester, in the North West of England. Close to the West Pennine Moors, it is north west of the city of Manchester. Bolton is surrounded by several smaller towns and villages which together form the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, of which Bolton is the...
, Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 2.6 million. It encompasses one of the largest metropolitan areas in the United Kingdom and comprises ten metropolitan boroughs: Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, Wigan, and the...
, in May 2005 for £202m. Laurel owns the HogsHead chain of high street bars. In April 2007 Laurel also acquired the La Tasca chain of tapas bars for £123m. Tchenguiz bought the company through his company R20 for £151m in November 2004. Laurel were placed into administration in March 2008 and the assets were immediately purchased by Bay Restaurant Group and Town & City Pub Company in a "pre-pack" deal.
Mitchells & Butlers: Mitchells & Butlers
Mitchells & Butlers
Mitchells & Butlers plc runs around 2,000 managed pubs, bars and restaurants throughout the United Kingdom. The Company's headquarters is in Birmingham, England, United Kingdom...
used to be the retail division of Bass plc
Bass (beer)
The Bass Brewery was founded as a brewery in 1777 by William Bass in Burton upon Trent, England. The main brand was Bass Pale Ale, which was once the highest selling beer in the UK...
, which rebranded in July 2001 to become Six Continents Retail, and again in April 2003 to its current name. The company owns All Bar One, Ember Inns, Edwards, Flares, O'Neills, Castle and Scream, as well as others. It is based in Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
.
Oakman Inns and Restaurants: Oakman (based in Tring
Tring
Tring is a small market town and also a civil parish in the Chiltern Hills in Hertfordshire, England. Situated north-west of London and linked to London by the old Roman road of Akeman Street, by the modern A41, by the Grand Union Canal and by rail lines to Euston Station, Tring is now largely a...
) are a chain in the Home Counties
Home Counties
The home counties is a term which refers to the counties of South East England and the East of England which border London, but do not include the capital city itself...
. Their first outlet The Akeman won Best UK Pub Design 2009 in The Publican
The Publican
The Publican was a weekly magazine for the UK licensed trade.The Publican, was launched in 1975, featured news and comment on issues that affect the pub trade as well as jobs and pubs for sale and lease...
Awards.
Pitcher and Piano: Pitcher and Piano has been owned by Marstons since 1996.
Punch Taverns:
- Punch Taverns is the largest pub and bar operator in the UK, with around 8,400 leased, tenanted and managed pubs. It is headquartered in the traditional brewing centre of Burton upon TrentBurton upon TrentBurton upon Trent, also known as Burton-on-Trent or simply Burton, is a town straddling the River Trent in the east of Staffordshire, England. Its associated adjective is "Burtonian"....
in StaffordshireStaffordshireStaffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...
. It is listed on the London Stock ExchangeLondon Stock ExchangeThe London Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located in the City of London within the United Kingdom. , the Exchange had a market capitalisation of US$3.7495 trillion, making it the fourth-largest stock exchange in the world by this measurement...
and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 IndexFTSE 250 IndexThe FTSE 250 Index is a capitalisation-weighted index consisting of the 101st to the 350th largest companies on the London Stock Exchange. Promotions to and demotions from the index take place quarterly in March, June, September and December...
. Punch Pub Company is the managed arm of Punch Taverns operating several pub chains. The group owns over 900 outlets nationwide. Pub chains owned by the Punch Pub Company include Chef & BrewerChef & BrewerChef & Brewer is a chain of around 127 licensed traditional pub restaurants in the United Kingdom, owned by Punch Taverns.-History:Following the merger of Grand Metropolitan and Guinness, to form Diageo in 1991, Chef & Brewer pubs were bought by Scottish & Newcastle in 1993 in a part cash, part...
, Taylor WalkerTaylor WalkerTaylor Walker may refer to:* Taylor Walker , Australian rules footballer* Taylor Walker, a character in the US television series, Days of our Lives* Taylor Walker Pubs, A 106 strong Pub Chain part of Punch Taverns...
, Fayre & Square, Two for £10, Original Pub Company, Flaming Grill Pub Company, Roast Inn, John Barras Pub Company, Real Local Pubs, Two for One and Two for £9.
Slug and Lettuce: Slug and Lettuce is owned by the Bay Restaurants Group who are based in Luton
Luton
Luton is a large town and unitary authority of Bedfordshire, England, 30 miles north of London. Luton and its near neighbours, Dunstable and Houghton Regis, form the Luton/Dunstable Urban Area with a population of about 250,000....
, Bedfordshire
Bedfordshire
Bedfordshire is a ceremonial county of historic origin in England that forms part of the East of England region.It borders Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Northamptonshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the west and Hertfordshire to the south-east....
. Originally part of Grosvenor Inns the chain was bought by SFI group who were based in Woking
Woking
Woking is a large town and civil parish that shares its name with the surrounding local government district, located in the west of Surrey, UK. It is part of the Greater London Urban Area and the London commuter belt, with frequent trains and a journey time of 24 minutes to Waterloo station....
. In June 2005 SFI Group went into administration at which point the majority of the Slug & Lettuce branded pubs were purchased by Laurel Pub Company for around £70 million. Laurel subsequently went into administration in March 2008, and the chain was acquired by Bay Restaurants Group. There are 80 pubs in the chain, predominantly situated in London, South East England
South East England
South East England is one of the nine official regions of England, designated in 1994 and adopted for statistical purposes in 1999. It consists of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, East Sussex, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Kent, Oxfordshire, Surrey and West Sussex...
and the Midlands, but also elsewhere in England, Scotland, Wales and the Isle of Man
Isle of Man
The Isle of Man , otherwise known simply as Mann , is a self-governing British Crown Dependency, located in the Irish Sea between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, within the British Isles. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who holds the title of Lord of Mann. The Lord of Mann is...
.
TCG: In September 2005, Spirit Group sold its "City Nights" portfolio of in excess of 180 pubs and clubs, en-bloc, to Alchemy - the financial backers behind the newly-formed Tattershall Castle Group (TCG) who created the brand, "the1440".