THE company behind high street eateries such as Garfunkel’s and Caffé Uno has become the latest operator to target the country pub-restaurant market after the £27 million acquisition of the Blubeckers chain.
The Restaurant Group (TRG), which also operates airport concessions and at leisure parks, has bought 12 Blubeckers pub-restaurants and five Edwinns Brasseries from CI Traders, the Channel Islands retail and property company, for £27.05 million.
TRG said the 17 eateries, all in the Home Counties, were mainly “character” properties in neighbourhood, rural and semi-rural locations, many with outdoor eating areas, aimed mainly at families and “mature consumers”.
They include Gomshall Mill in Surrey, a timber-framed building, parts of which date back to the 1100s, and the Bolney Stage, a listed property in West Sussex.
Alan Jackson, executive chairman, said that the acquisition of Blubeckers had broadened TRG’s customer base by giving it an entrée into the grey market. “This is a market that has got more money and more time on its hands,” he said.
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“They’re the sort of people who like to drive out to the country to a nice location where they can park easily and have a good quality meal in relaxed, pleasant surroundings.”
He expects to expand the business to 50 sites within the next three to five years. He conceded, however, that there was growing competition for sites from a large number of operators, including Mitchells & Butlers and Greene King.
Other companies that have started targeting large country pubs with an accent on food include Cross Oak Inns, an Enterprise Investment Scheme-funded business set up last year by Peter Eyles, former chairman of Hanover International, the hotel operator.
Mr Eyles recently acquired his second pub, the 400-year-old King’s Arms Inn in Oakley, Surrey, for £1.1 million, as part of his plan to develop a chain of food-led pubs in affluent areas of the South East. In March he paid £835,000 for The Poacher in Tudeley, Kent.
Another firm targeting the market is AIM-listed Gourmet Holdings, which once operated the Madisons coffee bar chain. Last year it took on Andrew Guy, the former TRG chief executive, to spearhead its move into restaurants, and acquired Bel and the Dragon, a small gastro-pub business in Surrey and Berkshire.
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Mr Jackson said: “The kitchen of competition is hotting up so we’re going to have to be nimble on our feet while remaining selective over the sites we go for.”
Blubeckers reported pre-tax profits of £1.4 million last year from turnover of £15.6 million. Excluding overheads of £1.4 million, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation reached £3.7 million. TRG said the deal would enhance earnings immediately.
Blubeckers, which includes seven freehold sites, was founded by Anthony Hancock, an entrepreneur who opened his first site in 1977. He later sold to Jersey’s Ann Street Group, a forerunner of CI Traders, for £10.4 million.
Mr Jackson said that food accounted for about 70 per cent of sales at the outlets, compared with about 75 per cent for TRG’s other restaurants.
Shares in TRG closed up 2p at 134½p.