Roundtable Discussion; The Future of Mineral Sands. Watch the video here.
Heard Very sad news today, Crooked House burnt down last night. 2 weeks after sale completed apparently … Terrible loss of an historic building.
Yes Mccall's insight and leadership has been amazing. Sp 160 before brexit, lost 30 % after a disastrous trading statement, never recovered.. and now struggles to get to 73p with millions spent.
Guess the company is in safe hands .. Would be nice to see 80p before xmas if not too much to ask!
Agree with alot you say especially as SP slips under 29 again today.. , though my experience of the pubs last weekend differs, Went to a local Marstons Saturday night, good atmosphere with plenty eating, nice staff, nice food. 61deep, Sunbeam, Wainwrights on tap (£4)..Karaoke came on later. Yes, could go to a Whethey with much cheaper beer, but enjoyed the clean tables / carpet/ comfortable seating that the local Marstons offered this time.
New good news would be nice SC, but they had a Trading update around the same time last year..
Quite a few Pubs/Restaurants properties available atm, those with money have a choice ..
Whitbread to sell over half of its pub-restaurant portfolio
Mon, 19 Jun 2023 | BUSINESS SALE
Whitbread to sell over half of its pub-restaurant portfolio
Hospitality brand Whitbread is reportedly selling 250 of its pub-restaurants in the UK.
According to media reports, the company, which owns the Premier Inn and Beefeater restaurant brands is said to be selling sites that are either marginal or loss-making, and most of them are located near to a Premier Inn and together are estimated to have a value of £600m.
While The Times reported that Mitchells & Butlers (M&B), who owns of Harvester, Toby Carvery All Bar One and Brown's is the frontrunner in acquiring these sites, the bar group has responded to this speculation, telling The Caterer: "As a major player in hospitality we're regularly the subject of industry speculation. But that's all this is … speculation."
Mitchells & Butlers, runs over 1,700 pubs and restaurants across the UK and in 2006, it paid £497m for 239 Whitbread pub-restaurants. Then in 2008 44 of Whitbread’s pub-restaurants were exchanged for 21 of Mitchells & Butlers Express by Holiday Inn branded hotels in a straight asset swap.
Whitbread, which has 440 pub-restaurants in the UK and is said to be looking to sell to established pub operators such as Greene King, Heineken, Marston’s and Punch.
Marston’s also recently put 61 of its freehold pubs in England and Wales up for sale after a review of its estate. The portfolio of pubs up for sale includes a mix of leased, tenanted, retail and managed pubs and business property adviser and pub specialist Christie & Co were appointed to execute this sale.
Whitbread has said that the reason for the sale is to focus on its Premier Inn hotel estate and its annual report showed that despite a rise in hotel guests the group's restaurants were trading 4 per cent below pre-pandemic levels.
www.business-sale.com/news/business-sale/whitbread-to-sell-over-half-of-its-pubrestaurant-portfolio
Agreed BC, no info as to how many have actually been sold and seems over 120 are planned to go.
Yes, with m&b up nearly up 2.5 % today and this sliding into “basket case” price range, mr market is not convinced from this CEO’s comments either..
Hi BC, This report in the Express &Star dated 17th May, is the only recentish info I've seen on their progress, and it seems more pubs sales will follow :
Chief executive Andrew Andrea said more than 60 pubs across the country were likely to be sold.
They are on top of the 61 pubs already being sold off by the Wolverhampton-based group that were revealed in March. Those include the unique Crooked House pub between Dudley and Himley and the Bradford Arms at Knockin.
The aim for the sum to be raised from sell-offs has been raised from £15m-20m to £55m- £65m.
In its latest half year results Marston’s revealed revenue has risen compared to the same time last year, with bosses saying “consumers remain as keen as ever to socialise within the Great British pub”.
The group, which currently operates 1,440 pubs and employs 11,000, saw revenue climb to £407 million from £369.7m in the same period last year as it revealed its interim results for the 26 weeks ending April 1. The results meant, on an underlying basis, the firm’s pre-tax loss narrowed to £3.6m from £7.5m last year.
Marston’s said drink sales continue to perform well and food sales were encouraging, demonstrating the trading resilience of the predominantly community pub estate.
Mr Andrea said it was important to continuously review its pubs. Those that are to close in the new announcement have not yet been revealed, but those already earmarked to be sold also include The Spills Meadow in Kent Street, Upper Gornal, The Fountain Inn, Clent and The Garibaldi in Stourbridge, as well as the Blue Pig in Trench and the Red Lion, Madeley.
He said: “The strategy which we outlined 18 months ago is progressing well and generating positive results which is pleasing.
“Consumers remain as keen as ever to celebrate and socialise within the pub.
“The macro environment is becoming increasingly stable and recent evidence suggests that both the cost outlook, and consumer confidence, are steadily improving. The actions we are taking are building a demonstrably better business and Marston’s predominantly community pub estate continues to benefit from changing consumer lifestyles.”
“We continue to deliver upon our clear strategic objective to reduce debt and progress our path to profitability.
“We remain on track to meet our operating profit, cash generation and debt reduction targets for the year.
“We look forward to delivering further positive progress as the year unfolds and remain confident that we have the strategy and the team in place to do so,
Summer Trading update last year was 27th July, so guessing a few weeks to wait yet.
Obviously the Markets do not believe that value, the CEO and Board should resign. Terrible sp performance.
In fairness Doug, it's CMBC selling here not Marstons, and I'm sure both Marstons and CMBC are doing ok from the premium lager sales which are now popular.
Shame, nice beer and more old brands going. However, CMBC are only trying to re-structure following "wreck it "Ralph's decision to pay 19.2 Million for it, ..
thanks cb, just found : carlsberg marston’s brewing company (cmbc) has said it intends to sell its ringwood brewery in southern england.
under proposals outlined by cmbc on wednesday (7 june), the ringwood brewery and the ringwood ale brands – including razorback, old thumper, boondoggle and fortyniner – are to be put on the market for sale.
cmbc also plans to close its logistics operations at ringwood, relocating deliveries to nearby depots at tiverton, farnborough and cardiff.
paul davies, ceo of cmbc, said the decision had been made in light of the scale of investment it believes necessary at the site, which is located in hampshire, near the new forest.
“this is not a decision we have taken lightly – we have incredible respect for the effort and dedication of the team at ringwood,” he said. “however, the brewery’s location in a residential area makes expansion complicated, and as such the investment required to bring its capacity and capability up to the level we need for our business is too great to be a viable path for cmbc.
“to ensure our future growth and simplify the business, we are looking for a new owner for ringwood in the brewing industry, including its excellent range of local ales.”
he added: “we have informed colleagues affected by these proposals at the brewery and our priority now is to support them through this process, and to begin the search for the right buyer for ringwood.”
ringwood brewery was founded in 1978, and, after outgrowing its original premises, moved to the current site in 1986. the brewery was bought by marston’s in 2013, for £19.2m.
eight staff work at the brewery, with five others in a shop on the site. a further 20 are employed in logistics. cmbc declined to comment on the potential impact any sale could have on jobs.
the decision to sell the ringwood brewery is the latest piece of consolidation to take place involving cmbc since the joint venture was formed through the merger of carlsberg’s uk operations and marston’s in 2020.
in september, cmbc announced it was to close the jennings brewery in ****ermouth, north-east england, with the production of its beers moving to cmbc’s marston’s brewery in burton.
jennings brewery was established in 1828 and had been situated in ****ermouth since 1874. the brewery was acquired by marston’s in 2005 but had seen “a significant decline in volumes” since the pandemic, according to cmbc.
in november, cmbc struck a deal to sell its eagle brewery to s.a. damm, with 67 production staff moving over to the spanish production group.
that sale included an arrangement for beers produced at the eagle brewery including birrificio, hobgoblin and angelo poretti to remain a part of cmbc’s portfolio.
last month, cmbc sold its london fields microbrewery to uk pub and bar operator grace land group for an undisclosed sum. grace land intends to use the site to launch its own saint monday beer brand.
Looks like this will be around 26p in next weeks, maybe even days at this rate. (And this in summer with lots drinking..) Comparing it with covid sp with all closed down, one must wonder why this business is staying open, except to service debt and keep some fat cats on the gravy train..
Sackings certainly need to take place on the board, and indeed with the CEO, before it is run even more into the ground.
I'd wait, 10p at the end of the month at this rate, shocking !
Hope you are wrong about the fall, but this daily hammering is depressing .. can't blame the yanks today.
Says it all : Her predecessor Alan Crozier presided over a quadrupling of the share price during his seven-year reign but – under Ms McCall –shares in the firm have fallen from £1.70 when she arrived in 2018 to 71p yesterday, a 58 per cent drop.
Not that this performance is reflected in her salary, which last year was £3.54million, up by £240,000 on 2021, a 6.7 per cent pay rise. Most ITV staff had to content themselves with a 3 per cent rise.