Enterprise pumps £2m into north east pubs: Enterprise Inns is stepping up its investment in the north east of England with two more pubs scheduled to open over the next few weeks following major refurbishment work. The re-opening of the Sir Thomas Brown in Eaglescliffe, Stockton-On-Tees and the Black Horse in Monkseaton will bring Enterprise’s investment in the region to £2 million over the last year. During that time the UK’s largest leased and tenanted pub company has improved 28 pubs across the north east, with many of them also benefiting from the additional investment support provided by individual publicans. The Sir Thomas Brown – formerly known as the Pavilion – is named after a fusilier who fought in the Boer War and is now buried in the local churchyard. The publicans – brother and sister John and Donna Price – are the local multiple operators behind Ginger Village Pubs and already operate another Enterprise site, The Mowden Hotel in Darlington. Enterprise has spent £166,000 with the couple contributing a further £15,000 to fully refurbish the interior and exterior of the Sir Thomas Brown and install a brand new commercial kitchen which will allow the pair to offer a good value classic pub food menu for the first time. The Black Horse near Whitley Bay is also scheduled to re-open towards the end of November following a £182,000 investment. Among other pubs in the region to have undergone major refurbishment work over the last year are The Fox & Hounds, Neasham, near Darlington, which saw investment of £157,200; The Wheatsheaf Inn, Chester le Street, County Durham (£130,700), the Elm Tree in Stockton on Tees (£60,000) and the Waterloo in Blyth (£53,000).

New Jamaican-inspired bar, cafe and ‘creative space’ concept to open in Deptford: A new Jamaican-inspired bar, cafe and “creative space” concept is to open in south east London. Buster Mantis, named after Jamaica’s first president Sir Alexander Bustamante, is launching in a former warehouse in two railway arches beneath Deptford train station. In one arch is the bar and dining space serving Jamaican food and a drinks menu featuring house rum punch, a selection of local and international beers, wines, coffee and freshly-brewed coffee. The other arch will house the “creative space”, suitable for art exhibitions, film screenings, workshops and pop-ups. The team behind Buster Mantis hopes to have the concept up and running by Christmas.

Players Bars embarks on expansion: Newcastle-headquartered bar operator Players Bars has revealed plans to open three new sites in major UK cities and create up to 200 jobs. Since first launching in 2006, Players Bars has experienced rapid growth, with 2015 sales up by 20% on the previous year. The bar operator, which already has operations in Leeds, Sheffield and Birmingham, has embarked on a two-year expansion plan in a deal backed by Reward Finance Group. Jonathan Codona, director at Players Bars Investments, said: “For businesses within the hospitality sector, it can be a real challenge to gain the funding you need in the time frame you require it. Reward has been a breath of fresh air throughout this process as you are able to speak to the funders directly, resulting in us being able to complete the vital transaction in just two weeks. Players Bars is growing at a fast rate and to maintain this momentum the support of Reward has been crucial.” Peter Cromarty, business development director at Reward Finance, praised Players as a “thriving north east business”.

New high-end bar/restaurant concept set for Nottingham: Agent Bruton Knowles has announced it has let a site in Nottingham’s Lace Market for a new high-end bar/restaurant concept. Industry newcomer Poseidon Kumar has secured the lease for 3-5 High Pavement to open The Loom, which will be a supper club and cocktail bar.

Pizza Hut accused of selling children’s meals with excessive sugar: Pizza Hut has been accused of selling children’s meals loaded with 48 cubes of sugar. The company is one of 21 investigated by food and health campaigners at the Social Association. They found that Pizza Hut, Frankie & Benny’s and Cafe Rouge all offered children free or discounted refills of high-calorie drinks. Spokesman Rob Percival said the findings were “obscene”. “Parents want to take their children for a treat, but they have no idea how much sugar some high street restaurants are peddling at their children,” he added. “Two in three parents don’t think that kids’ food in restaurants is good enough. Adults expect to be offered real food and real choices in restaurants and we think children deserve the same.” Pizza Hut insists it provides a balanced and varied menu. In a statement it added: “All of our self-service drink machines provide low and no-sugar options, and the majority of carbonated drinks bought are low or no-sugar. Free, unlimited salad, which includes over 30 varieties of fruit and vegetables, is available in all of our Huts.”

Staffordshire couple to open second micro-pub: Staffordshire couple Graham Newbury and Tansy Harrison are to open their second micro-pub. The couple, who run the Bridge Street Ale House in Newcastle-under-Lyme, are opening the London Road Ale House in London Road, Stoke, on the site of a disused carpet shop. They hope to have the new site up and running by Christmas. The couple previously ran the Enterprise Inn-owned Red Lion in Hartshill for three years before launching their first micro-pub in May last year. Newbury told the Stoke Sentinel: “When we opened the first pub, it exceeded all of our expectations. Our plan all along was to expand and open other micro-pubs as well. We looked all over but I knew there would be demand there as there are three real ale pubs but nothing like a micro-pub.” Harrison added: “Our Bridge Street Ale House took off really well, but we’ve never run multiple operations before, so it’ll be a learning curve running the London Road Ale House as well.”

Daish Group buys eighth site, first in Wales: Daish Group has acquired its eighth hotel site, the Somerset Hotel in Llandudno off an asking price of £1.3m through agent Fleurets. The prominent sea front hotel, which is the company’s first site in Wales, has been in the same family ownership for many years. Daish Group operates sites in Newquay, Torquay, Weymouth (two hotels), Bournemouth, Isle of Wight (Shanklin) and Eastbourne.

Jamie Rollo – we think Greene King will reduce its brands to seven or eight: Morgan Stanley leisure analyst Jamie Rollo has forecast Greene King will reduce the total number of brands within its enlarged post-Spirit acquisition portfolio from 15 to seven or eight. He said: “We think the company’s main thrust for achieving revenue synergies will come from simplification and improvement of its brands. Previous transactions, such as Mitchells & Butler’s acquisitions of Allied Domecq, Whitbread, and Orchid pubs have targeted very high sales uplifts, 40-50% in these examples (though not always achieved). We don’t think Spirit offers such potential given not all its pubs can be converted to a Greene King brand. Still, given the overlap between Greene King and Spirit formats, we think the company will reduce its 15 brands to seven or eight. We assume that stand-alone brands like Loch Fyne and Farmhouse Inns will continue, leaving clusters of similar brands to be rationalised. In the premium segment, this would be between Metropolitan Pub Company and Taylor Walker; in the mainstream food-led pubs, between Chef & Brewer, Old English Inns and Eating Inn; and in the value segment between Hungry Horse, Fayre & Square, Flaming Grill, Meet & Eat and Flame Grill. Taking the example of the value segment, Hungry Horse is the best-known brand, yet when adjusted for outlet numbers is similar to Fayre & Square or Flaming Grill. Consolidating brands could help boost overall awareness as well as marketing and central cost efficiencies. If we were to assume a 10-20% sales uplift on say 20-30% of Spirit’s pubs, this would suggest a 4% sales increase across Spirit, which we take as our base case (using a 40% conversion margin). Brewing and brands should benefit from increased sales to Spirit’s 1,200 pubs. The company has indicated that the division, which has experienced flat profits for five years, could see a 5-10% uplift in profits at full run-rate (worth £2-4m), although this will take some time to ramp up. Greene King should benefit from utilising Spirit’s superior technology and systems. Management believes that Spirit’s digital capability and customer relationship management are more advanced than Greene King’s, and replicating this should improve its customer interaction and loyalty. Spirit’s systems and management information platforms are also seen as far superior to Greene King’s infrastructure. Management was given minimal access to Spirit until the acquisition was completed, but even at the FY15 results, the attractiveness of Spirit’s ‘Pub in a box’ IT system was deemed worthy of comment. The system led to a 60bp gross profit margin improvement at Spirit in the year following its roll-out in February 2012, through reducing local discounting, theft, admin for the pub manager, as well as improved staff rostering and better cost control. Spirit invested £205m in its managed estate in the four years prior to Greene King’s acquisition, excluding new pubs. This is about 8% of sales over this period, which is high for a managed pubco as the company was going through some catch-up spend after years of underinvestment under Punch Taverns’ ownership. Spirit stated that 89% of its managed pubs were invested and branded in its FY14 annual report. Spirit’s capex programme raised its average weekly turnover per pub by 20% and brought Ebitdar margins up to peers between 2010 and 2014. Despite this, Greene King sees a potential element of underinvestment still, and that modest spend could produce some good returns. Spirit’s stated returns on its Flaming Grill and Golden Oak conversions suggest that areas of the estate (particularly locals we think) do remain underinvested.”

Sunderland nightclub operator set to start expanding portfolio by opening new bar in city: Sunderland nightclub operator Ben Wall is set to start expanding his portfolio by opening a new bar in the city. Wall has applied to Sunderland City Council to transform Alenia’s Music Art in High Street West and the neighbouring former opticians in Church Lane into the new venue. The unnamed bar would have eating and drinking areas, a bar, kitchen and cellar storage. Wall, who runs Independent nightclub in Holmeside, told the Sunderland Echo: “I’ll still running Independent, but this will be something different to anything else. I got the idea when I went to the Northern Quarter in Manchester and I’m going for that type of feel. It will have a special menu and it’s going to be very much a food place. It’s in a nice area and it’s becoming an alternative area for people to come to.”

Bedlam signs distribution deal with Indigo and Metropolitan: Sussex-based craft brewer Bedlam, based in Albourne, has signed distribution deals with Indigo Leisure and Greene King’s Metropolitan Pub Company division. Brighton-based Indigo Leisure will be introducing two beers from Bedlam’s range across all 16 of its sites with immediate effect, as it seeks to bolster its local craft offering. The brewery will also work with London-based Metropolitan Pub Company, to provide its new pilsner and cask range offering across a selection of Metropolitan’s 75 sites in the capital. Bedlam managing director Dominic Worrall said: “With both Indigo and Metropolitan groups taking beer from us, it’s a sign that there’s a decent appetite from within the on-trade to champion smaller breweries like ourselves, breweries who create craft beer in every sense of the phrase.” Following major investment earlier this year, the next 18 months will see production levels increase vastly, with the construction of a new state-of-the-art brewery, complete with a tasting facility and shop, which will be open to the public.

Speaker programme for Propel Multi Club Conference: The full speaker programme for the Propel Multi Club Conference on Thursday, 5 November at the Lancaster, London, the best-attended conference series in the sector, has been unveiled. Ian King, presenter of the Sky News show, Ian King Live, and former Business and City editor of The Times, looks at the key economic trends over the past 12 months and the 12 months ahead and gives his views on their impact on the hospitality sector. Peter Hansen, founder of leading mergers and acquisitions advisory Sapient Corporate Finance, which has advised on sector transactions worth more than £2bn in the past five years, looks at the key sector trends in 2015 for those buying and selling businesses. Andrew Ball, of accountancy firm haysmacintyre, offers his top tips on tax minimisation for multi-site operators. Paul Harbottle, commercial director of Enterprise Inns, talks about building an 800-strong managed pub estate and investment and progress in the leased and tenanted part of the business. Toby Smith, chief executive of Novus Leisure, explains how the company is evolving its food, drink and entertainment offer, along with digital capability, to stay at the forefront of the late-night market in London and the regions. Martin Wolstencroft, founder of Arc Inspirations, arguably Yorkshire’s most successful independent bar and restaurant operator, talks about running multiple concepts, overcoming challenges, best-in-class profit conversion, innovation and expanding over the Pennines in the company’s 15th year. Scott Shaw, founder and chairman of marketing and information analysis business Fishbowl, explains how US restaurant businesses are using guest information to drive marketing and sales. He is joined by data expert Mike Lukianoff, founder of Czar Metrics, now owned by Fishbowl, who will talk about the ground-breaking work his company is doing in the US with a host of well-known restaurant brands, using data to shape menu and price engineering, media efficiency and trade area analytics. Nick Collins, managing director of Loungers, talks about evolving the brand, maintaining company culture, fulfilling growth ambitions, new trading locations and stepping into the shoes of founder Alex Reilley. Kris Gumbrell and Simon Bunn, co-founders of Brewhouse & Kitchen, talk about how they have developed the UK’s largest brewpub chain, food quality, recruiting brewers, brewing experiences, EIS funding and the market potential for the company. Ann Elliott, chief executive of leading sector public relations and marketing firm Elliotts, presents the findings of a survey of senior industry executives on the subject of “outstanding leadership”. Elliotts strategy director James Hacon talks to former Spirit chief executive Mike Tye, Thorley Taverns operations director Phil Thorley, Ego Restaurants chief executive James Horler and Ann Elliott about the principles of high quality leadership.