Brewery swoops for country inn business
Robinsons Brewery has announced that it has acquired a business with a portfolio of six country inns.
The Stockport brewery has bought Individual Inns which has pubs in Yorkshire, Lancashire and Cumbria.
The six pubs wiil expand Robinsons managed estate to 20 sites and strengthen its estate in Cumbria as well as moving into Yorkshire, a previously untapped county for the 181-year-old family-run business.
Robinsons Brewery, a sixth generation family business, operate over 260 tenanted and managed pubs in the north of England and Wales.
The pubs are:
• The Masons Arms, Strawberry Bank;
• The Wheatsheaf, Brigsteer (incorporating Lumley Fee Bunk House);
• The Spread Eagle, Sawley;
• The Tempest, Elslack;
• The Fountaine Inn, Linton; and the…
• Wheatley Arms, Ben Rhydding.
William Robinson, the managing director of the pubs division of the Cheshire family business, said: “We aim to offer great experiences through food, drinks or overnight stays, and see Individual Inns as a great example of a company that shares our values and standards and so hope the customers and the team at Individual Inns will feel that joining our family is a home from home.
“Ewan Harries and his management team have built a fantastic business over many years, and we look forward to working with them all as their great pubs join ours in a successful future.
“Their great success is underpinned by a local and personal touch on a pub by pub basis and we hope to both learn from, and add to their model, to make customers even more delighted in the years to come.
“This continues our aim to develop our tenanted and managed estates through selective investment schemes, and acquisition of pubs that are either trading well or have the potential to do so.
“However, opportunities like this don’t come up often and we are delighted to have been able to enhance our managed business through this deal.”
Ewan Harries, managing director of Individual Inns, added: “I am also delighted that a family business has become the owner of Individual Inns.
“Our award-winning Group (Best Pub Group, 2018 Good Pub Guide) is ripe for expansion and a continued desire for excellence. Robinsons have that desire.”
William added: “As recently reported, we have a track record of investing in training and pub refurbishments having spent £26.7m on 127 pubs over the last 5 years as we prepare for a healthy future.
“Our long-term strategy remains unchanged. We are committed to developing our people, growing the quality of our pub estate, and creating high-quality beers that our customers love to drink.”
