Greene King Bid For Spirit Pub Company

You can tell the economy is on the move..........can't remember when there was a seriously big hostile take over in pub world in recent times......GK have bid £100m for Spirit and it will probably go through for around £120m.......You will recall GK bought Hardy & Hansons a few years back, promptly closing the brewery at Kimberley and whilst their large managed estate was heavily invested in, the independent tenancies were by and large left to fend for themselves..........GK own the Hungry Horse brand and Eating Inn (Wolds and Goose Gamston), along with the likes of Test Match, Bell and Ye Olde Trip'..........Spirit meanwhile have big managed brands aswell.........Flaming Grill (Rose & Crown Derby Rd), Chef & Brewer (Ferry Wilford) and Fayre & Square (Nottm Knight), together with some really good lease pubs like the Hayloft, Giltbrook, Vale, Arnold and Larch Farm, Ravensh ead (Good Beer Guide 2015).......Spirit incorporated the old Greenalls managed estate which will GK strong exposure in the NW England..........the leases will improve the GK stock...BUT it will inevitably lead to more smaller tenancies being sold.............the question will be whether GK follow Marstons and sell large batches of pubs to supermarkets or direct them towards the likes of the Hawthorne pub co who are a new tenanted company on a big growth track.........we will be following this one closely.

In the normal mad world of tenanted pub cos....Enterprise Inns have hired two Ex Wetherspoons Execs to develop a managed house division with the Enterprise group.............this needs to watched really carefully....here is a company with C5000 pubs nationwide (Share price 121 down fro 2014 hi of C170).....It is a significant move and away from where Punch Taverns are thinking currently..........but in a similar vein to Marstons who have a quasi franchise division along side leased and managed pubs.....these are signs that the pub market is evolving rapidly.

At Pub People, we have finally got a completion date for the Nags Head at Newbold in Chesterfield.......this is lovely multi roomed character pub. We will be giving it a small refit before installing extra handpulls and providing customers with an excellent range of local micro brewed ales and traditional ciders.........it is quite close to the Chesterfield Arms and we are working on a collector card sheme covering our other cask ale pubs in Chesterfield (Woodside, Blue Stoops and Rutland Arms (Good Beer Guide 2015))

The Lion has some fine live entertainment this weekend...see below and the Post for details

Andrew Crawford
Operations Director
Pub People Co

Lion
CAMRA Discount on ales and ciders 15p
Ossett Brewery Yorkshire are brewers of the month Sept
Bradfield Brewer Oct

Friday 26 September 2014
Live Music from 9pm
Vince Eager and the Memphis Tones (9pm)

Saturday 27 September 2014
Live Music from 9pm
Firewire (9pm)

Sunday 28 September 2014
Sunday Lunchtime Jazz@ the Lion...from 1.30pm
Our ever popular Live Jazz sessions. We are incredibly lucky to be able to have some of the most talented, grooviest performers showcase themselves at The Lion.
DELI (1:30pm)