St Austell buys five south west pubs from Enterprise Inns

The sale comes six months after the Cornish company revealed it had successfully agreed a refinancing deal to fund investments in its estate.

Develop presence ​

Following the purchase, St Austell Brewery now operates 173 pubs across the south west. Adam Luck, estate director at the business, said the purchase formed part of plans to develop in new areas across the region.

"The acquisition of five new pubs is an exciting addition to our portfolio. The purchases form part of the brewery’s on-going investment programme to develop our pub estate and our presence across the south west of England."

The five pubs, which will all remain as leased venues with the current lessees, are:

• The Albion in Bristol.
• The Blue Ball Inn in Exeter.
• The George Hotel in Plympton.
• The Rose & Crown in Yealmpton, near Plymouth.
• The Cornish Arms in Tavistock 

"Bristol is a particularly exciting area for us," Luck added.

"The Albion will be our first pub in the city and it’s an area that presents a great opportunity to develop both our beer sales in the pub estate and the free trade business following the appointment of an area sales manager in Bristol, earlier in the year," he said.

Disposal​

The off-market sale for an undisclosed sum marks the return of St Austell to the acquisition trail after the Cornwall-based company successfully agreed a £40m refinancing deal with RBS and Barclays banks in February.​

For Enterprise Inns it is the latest sale in its pub disposal programme which resulted in more than 1,000 pubs being removed from its portfolio in the two years to September 2011.​

Although the Solihull-based business has slowed its rate of disposals since then, it sold two venues to tenanted operator Brakspear last month​. At the time of the purchase Brakspear chief executive Tom Davies announced his intention for the company to remain on the acquisition trail and expand further this year.