According to the pubco and brewer, 254 people got in touch with Greene King Pub Partners between June and August saying they wanted to run their own pub; more than double the number that applied during the same period in 2019.
Additionally, there were also 108 new unique applications received by the group between 24 March and 22 June, at the the height of the Coronavirus lockdown.
“It’s really uplifting to see that people’s passion for running their own pub has not been daunted by recent events,” says Chris Thorogood, Greene King Pub Partners recruitment manager.
“We have recently invested in updating and relaunching our Pub Partners recruitment website so we can showcase a wide range of pubs to potential licensees looking to run their own business.
“We’re delighted with the number of enquiries we’re receiving and are working through them all now, we continue to be inspired by the passion people are showing in having the opportunity to run a Greene King tenanted pub.”
Greene King has so far provided £21m of financial support to its 975 leased and tenanted partners since the lockdown started in March.
The bulk of that support has came in the form of rent concessions, with rent reduced by 90% from 11 June until four weeks after pubs could legally reopen.
From there the concession was reduced to 50% for a further four weeks.
Last month it was reported that those concessions would be extended again, at a further reduced rate, to take the support through until October.
To meet increased demand, the business has launched a new recruitment website and is hosting a series of virtual recruitment events.