Barracuda restructures, becomes Bramwell Pub Co

Barracuda Pub Company has been renamed The Bramwell Pub Company in a restructuring which sees ex-Mitchells & Butlers chief executive Adam Fowle appointed as chairman and the newly-formed company benefitting from a credit facility of up to £10m from new backer Värde Partners.

As part of the restructure, Bramwell Pub Company will operate 190 pubs, with 18 sites to be returned to the landlords (seven of which are currently trading). The new management team is led by chief executive Roger Moxham following an operational reorganisation of the Company earlier this month.

“The blend of debt and equity gives the Company an optimal capital structure to support the execution of our business plan," said Moxham.

“Throughout the restructuring our goal has been to minimise disruption to our staff, customers, partners and suppliers and this has been achieved. We are grateful for their support during this period.

“Looking forward we will be able to invest in our assets enhancing the customer experience and developing the Company. The Company has continued to perform in line with our expectations and today’s announcement attests to the ongoing confidence of all our investors. We are very excited about the future and confident that the Company is in good shape to make significant, sustained progress in line with our business plan.”

Simplified structure

The financial restructuring is being effected by way of a separation of the operating company ('opco') from the property company ('propco'). The announcement follows an operational reorganisation undertaken earlier this month, which simplified the structure under the new management team lead by Moxham. Going forward the Company will continue to operate the same brands Smith & Jones, Varsity & Cape.

The nationwide pub company operates three brands: Smith and Jones Pubs, Varsity and Cape. It believes that the restructuring and new credit facility 'create a solid foundation to execute the sales and investment plans developed by the new management team'.

All suppliers and contractors are unaffected and the company will continue to do business with them as before. The restructured management team under Moxham will remain in place.