Pubs and restaurants group Mitchells & Butlers has announced plans to sell 333 pubs as it withdraws from what it called the “lower price, drinks-led market”.
The pubs are being sold to Stonegate Pub Company, which is controlled by TDR Capital, for £373 million.
The company said in a release: “The disposal is in line with Mitchells & Butlers’ strategy to withdraw from the lower price, drinks-led market and the late night high street bars and venues as announced in March 2010.”
On completion, £500 million will have been realised from recent non-core disposals, Mitchells & Butlers said.
Mitchells & Butlers, which owns Harvester and All Bar One, wants to sell off many of its non-core pubs and late-night High Street bars.
Following the sales, the group will have 1,580 restaurants and food-led pubs in the UK, it said.
Adam Fowle, Chief Executive, explained: “We are pleased that we have been able to announce the exit from our price sensitive drinks-led pubs and our late night venues in a single transaction. This disposal, when combined with the sale of our lodge and bowling businesses, completes the first stage of our strategy.”
The money from the sales will be used to reinvest in food-led sites.
“This will now enable us to reinvest in the informal eating out market where our market leading brands, corporate scale and operational capability will deliver attractive growth and investment returns for our shareholders,” Fowle said.
Union anger
However, the news has been met with anger from the GMB, the union for pub tenants.
The union said that the two founding partners of private equity company TDR Capital - Manjit Dale and Stephen Robertson - were involved in the financial engineering for what is now the Punch Taverns debacle and warned staff in the 333 pubs that they should be "very afraid".
Hayley Brennan GMB lead organiser for tied tenants said: “Here we go again – up hill and down dale with these two who enriched themselves at the expense of our members in Punch Taverns. Manjit Dale and Stephen Robertson have come back for more pubs for only one reason – to further enrich themselves.
"As a Punch Taverns tenant paying a dry rent over three times what VOA assess as the open market rent for my pub on top of the wet rent I say to staff in these 333 pubs “be afraid – be very afraid”.”
SOURCE: Mitchells & Butlers
Edited by Ellie Duncan