Wear Inns – we paid £6.4m for the nine Tattershall Castle sites: Wear Inns, the fast-expanding north east managed pub operator that is backed by the Business Growth Fund and NVM Private Equity, has reported it paid £6.4m plus £400,000 of costs to buy nine pubs from Tattershall Castle Group at the end of May - it works out at £755,000 per pub including costs. The fast-expanding company has added 11 pubs in total to the 15 sites it operated at its year-end on 31 March. The company reported that turnover for the most recent year grew to £7,419,769 from £6,229,122 the year before. Operating profit was £634,519 (£640,653 in 2011) and pre-tax profit was £63,906, down from £96,931 the year before. Wear Inns received an additional £10m from investors in May, £8m from the Business Growth Fund and £2m from NVM Private Equity. Of the Tattershall acquisition, the company stated: “These pubs are being refurbished and after management principles are applied they are expected to make a significant contribution to the future results of the company.” Last week, Wear Inns bought two Orchid pubs, The Colonel Prior in Sunderland and The Park in Bradford. NVM has been an investor in the business since 2006 when it was founded by John Weir and former Pubmaster boss John Sands, now chief executive and chairman respectively. Weir says that back in 2006 the company’s objective was to acquire 20 pubs across the north east and Yorkshire, a target which it has now exceeded. “We were clear that managed pubs were the way to go as they are clearly driving the market in terms of positive like-for-like growth,” he said. In the most recent financial year, the company reported it benefited from full-year trading at five sites bought the year before. Sales increased by 19.14 per cent and there was a 18.97 per cent increase in gross trading profit. The company paid £90,000 in bank fees to NatWest to replace a banking facility with a longer one and £135,000 in legal and professional costs in relation to raising further funding.