Stonegate places circa 75-strong package of freehold pubs on market for £100m: Stonegate Group, the UK’s largest pub company, has placed a circa 75-strong freehold package of pubs on the market, which are valued at up to £100m. Propel understands the former Ei Group pubs are all free-of-tie and are spread across England and Wales. The investment opportunity is being marketed by Eastdil and Stonegate Group, Britain’s biggest pub operator and the owner of Slug & Lettuce and Be At One, has hired Eastdil and Sapient Corporate Finance. The properties will be continued to be run as pubs by Stonegate tenants. Stonegate declined to comment. Stonegate completed its £3bn acquisition of Ei Group in March 2020. In 2019, Ei Group did a similar deal to that planned by Stonegate. It sold 370 properties comprising public houses and other commercial properties for £348m to Tavern Propco, which was a newly incorporated private company that is owned, through intermediate holding companies, by investment funds managed and/or advised by Davidson Kempner Capital Management LP.

Tim Hortons makes London debut with first guests queuing for record 36 hours: Canadian quick service restaurant brand Tim Hortons has made its London debut today (Friday, 1 July). SK Group, which is leading the rollout of the brand in the UK, has opened the site at Royale Leisure Park in Park Royal. The 4,209 square-foot site offers a dine-in and drive-thru service, with delivery options being added in the next few weeks. Its first guests arrived 36 hours before the opening, smashing the previous 20-hour record at its Leicester launch in 2019. Kevin Hydes, chief commercial officer of the Tim Hortons franchise in the UK, said: “After years of requests, the time has finally come, and we are officially open in London. We are lucky to have a large cult following and are no strangers to early arrivals at our restaurant launches, but our winners today will go down in history as our longest queuing fans.” In May, Hydes told Propel that by the end of this year, the brand “should be able to say that it has got nationwide coverage in the UK”. Tim Hortons, which operates 55 UK sites, has plans to add another circa 30 locations in Britain by the end of 2022.