Ei Group unveils eighth managed joint venture company: Ei Managed Investments, the Ei Group business which invests alongside industry-leading managed house operators, is launching Six Cheers, a partnership with Three Cheers Pub Co. Three Cheers Pub Co is an award-winning pub group established in 2003 by old school friends Tom Peake, Mark Reynolds and Nick Fox. The group owns seven pubs in south London including The Avalon, The Bolingbroke and The Latchmere. Six Cheers, which will be Ei Managed Investments’ eighth venture, will transform a number of pubs which are currently part of Ei Group’s estate. The pubs will focus on seasonal British produce, English beer, fine wine and champagne and party spaces that Three Cheers is known for. The first site for the Six Cheers venture will be the iconic The Bedford in Balham. Great food, beer and wine, as well as comedy and live music, will remain at the heart of the venue following a multimillion-pound refurbishment in early 2018. The pub will remain open until that time. Peake said: “We are absolutely delighted to be working alongside Ei Managed Investments and we are especially excited about taking on a venue as iconic as The Bedford. It’s a pub we’ve known all our lives and we are thrilled to have the opportunity to restore it to its former glory.” Nathan Wall, operations director for Ei Managed Investments, added: “Six Cheers is an exciting venture for us. We’re delighted to be working alongside the Three Cheers Pub Co team and harness the experience they’ve gained from building their unique pub company.” Three Cheers Pub Co is Ei Managed Investments’ eighth "Managed Expert" partner as the business continues to work with industry-leading managed house operators and benefit from their individual retail capabilities. Other expert partners include Rupert Clevely, with Hippo Inns, Karen Jones, with Frontier Pubs, and Peter Borg-Neal, with Hunky Dory Pubs. Managed Investments has grown rapidly since its launch in May 2015 and there are now 25 pubs operating across the eight different ventures. Earlier this month, Ei Group chief executive Simon Townsend told Propel he expected the company would add two "managed experts" by September, while the company was engaged in “many more” discussions. He said: “These are cutting-edge, highly experienced operators who have shown us how to make investments work harder. These guys have been fantastic to work with.” The longest-established Ei Group joint venture is Rupert Clevely’s Hippo Inns, which Townsend described as a “really great experience”. A recent partnership with Ben Stackhouse’s Publove is an evolution of the managed expert programme, with Ei Group buying a stake in an existing business with expertise in operating hostels above pubs. Townsend said the company was looking hard at its estate to find unused space above pubs that might lend itself to hostel conversion.

Whitbread reveals board change: Whitbread has announced Sir Ian Cheshire is to step down from the board and as senior independent director. Sir Ian will step down at the end of the company’s board meeting on 21 September and Adam Crozier, who joined the board on 1 April, will become senior independent director with effect from the end of the meeting. Whitbread chairman Richard Baker said: “I would like to thank Sir Ian for more than six years of service to Whitbread, initially as chairman of the remuneration committee and more recently as senior independent director. Sir Ian has made a significant contribution to Whitbread during a very successful period in the company’s history and I wish him well in the future. I am delighted that Adam Crozier, a highly experienced business leader, has agreed to succeed Sir Ian as senior independent director. Adam joined the board earlier this year and we are already benefiting from his much-valued experience and advice.”