Scream Slug & Lettuce Tattershall Castle Henry's Café Bar Yates's Missoula Social Squirrel Flares & Reflex Popworld The Living Room Retro Sports Bar & Grill Walkabout Be at one Fever Bars Tank & Paddle The Liquorist Whittle Taps
Stonegate Pub Company is the largest pub company in the UK, operating around 4,800 managed, leased and tenanted pubs.[1] It is owned by TDR Capital. The head office is based in Solihull, England, and the company is registered in the Cayman Islands.[2]
The Auctioneer (now The Lost Hour), an unbranded Stonegate pub in Greenwich, London.
The company was formed in 2010 by the private equity firm TDR Capital, after it purchased 333 pubs from Mitchells & Butlers.[3] Originally trading from rented offices near Birmingham Airport, it then moved its operations office to Capability Green in Luton in June 2011, when Stonegate bought the Town & City Pub Company, which was in receivership, creating the largest privately held managed pub operator in the UK and acquiring the Yates's and Slug and Lettuce brands in the process.[4]
In August 2013, Stonegate acquired thirteen Living Room sites from Premium Bars & Restaurants. In June 2015, a further fifteen sites were acquired from the Scottish pub, bar and hotel operator Maclay Inns, and later that same year Stonegate acquired 53 pubs from Tattershall Castle Group (TCG), including the Henry's Café Bar and Tattershall Castle brands.[5]
In January 2016, the company began updating former TCG estate pubs and rebranding many of the venues to Slug & Lettuce. Later that year, Stonegate exchanged on a package of ten JD Wetherspoon pubs and acquired the Walkabout owner Intertain, adding a further thirty sites to its portfolio.[5]
In 2017, the company acquired the Sports Bar & Grill concept and, in 2018, Be At One and fifteen Novus Leisure sites.[5]
In January 2019, Stonegate acquired Bar Fever Ltd (Fever Bars) – 32 venues: 29 bars, including Fever Boutique, Zinc and Moo Moo, as well as three Bierkeller Bavarian pubs and a further six sites from Novus Leisure.[5]
Following the acquisition of Ei Group, on 3 March 2020, for £1.27 billion, Stonegate Pub Company became the largest pub company in the UK, with around 5,000 sites.[6][7] It has 1,270 sites within the managed division and 3,457 leased and tenanted businesses.[6]
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Stonegate furloughed 16,500 workers under a UK job-retention programme. This drew negative attention due to the company's Cayman Islands registration. A Stonegate spokesperson said: "Last year Stonegate paid over £300m in tax in the UK. As a UK business, fully paying UK tax, we have every right to access government assistance."[2]
In July 2023, the company was convicted of an offence under health and safety legislation after a February 2018 event in which Olivia Burt, a 20-year-old student at Durham University, was killed when a crowd-control screen fell on her as she was queuing to get into the company's Missoula nightclub in Durham. The victim's parents commented: "Our heartbreak and pain have been prolonged by Stonegate pleading not guilty and fighting the case to trial. We have been waiting 1,976 days for Stonegate to be held criminally responsible. We thank the jury for seeing through Stonegate’s smoke and mirrors defence blaming everyone but themselves for what happened to Olivia."[8] A fine of £1.56 million was imposed for the offence.[9]
In September 2023, the company announced it was to introduce dynamic pricing, increasing the price of alcoholic drinks at busy times.[10]
In February 2024, Stonegate Group was named by the Department of Business and Trade as one of the companies that had failed to pay the minimum wage, underpaying 3,650 workers.[11]
Brands
Stonegate's managed pubs division is split into branded and traditional (unbranded) pubs. Branded pubs are Slug & Lettuce, Walkabout, Be At One,[12] and venues (including Popworld and Fever).[13]
Walkabout is an Australian themed pub and restaurant chain in the United Kingdom, owned by Stonegate Pubs since December 2016.
The Admiral Duncan is a public house in Old Compton Street, Soho, in central London that is well known as one of Soho's oldest gay pubs.
Jongleurs is a chain of comedy clubs in the United Kingdom, running since 1983. The business is now owned by Kev Orkian.
All Bar One is a pub chain consisting of 56 bars in the United Kingdom, owned and operated by Mitchells and Butlers plc which was part of the Six Continents group until 2003.
Mitchells & Butlers plc runs circa 1,784 managed pubs, bars and restaurants throughout the United Kingdom. The company's headquarters are in Birmingham, England. The company is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.
Slug and Lettuce is a chain of bars that operate in the United Kingdom, with a large number located in London and South East England. As of 2017, there are a total of 70 outlets. Hugh Corbett opened the first Slug and Lettuce in Islington in 1985. He attempted to enhance the public house environment, at a time when standards were often low.
Ei Group plc, formerly known as Enterprise Inns plc, is the largest pub company in the UK, with around 5,000 properties, predominantly run as leased and tenanted pubs. Ei Group plc is headquartered in Solihull, West Midlands. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange until it was acquired by Stonegate Pub Company in March 2020.
Punch Pubs & Co is a pub and bar operator in the United Kingdom, with around 1,300 leased pubs. It is headquartered in the traditional brewing centre of Burton upon Trent in Staffordshire. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange as a constituent of the FTSE SmallCap Index until its sale in 2016 for £403 million to a private equity fund, Patron Capital, acting in concert with Heineken International who acquired 1,900 of Punch's pubs as part of the deal.
Scream was a student-oriented pub chain in the United Kingdom owned by the Stonegate Pub Company. The chain began in October 1995.
Revolution Bars Group, previously known as Inventive Leisure and The New Inventive Bar Company, is a city centre bar chain with headquarters in Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester, England. The bar brands trade under the names Revolution and Revolución de Cuba.
Varsity was a student-focused pub chain operating in the United Kingdom. The name originates from annual university sports competitions. It entered administration in 2013. Coventry is the only remaining pub bearing the name Varsity which is now operated by Stonegate Pub Company.
Brothers Cider is a brand of fruit cider originating in Somerset in South West England. Originally available at music festivals, it is now sold in pubs, bars, and stores across the United Kingdom and internationally in countries such as Thailand, Singapore, and China.
Yates is an English pub chain. It was founded as Yates's Wine Lodge in Oldham, Lancashire by Peter and Simon Yates in 1884.
The Bay Restaurant Group is a hospitality company in the United Kingdom, specialising in restaurant and pub chains.
The White Lion is a Grade II listed public house in Putney, in the London Borough of Wandsworth.
Novus Leisure is a British company which operates 41 bars and nightclubs in the United Kingdom. Toby Smith has been in charge of the company since 2015. Their operations include two Tiger Tiger nightclubs, and several venues in the City and West End areas of London.
TDR Capital LLP is a British private equity firm headquartered in London, England.
EG Group is a British operator of filling stations, convenience stores and food service providers across Europe, the United States and Australia. It was founded in Blackburn in 2001 by brothers Mohsin and Zuber Issa, initially as Euro Garages.
Missoula was a nightclub in Unit 7 of the Walkergate retail complex in Durham, England that opened on October 1, 2016. The venue was used as a Slug and Lettuce branded pub until August 2016. Owners Stonegate Pub Company spent £385,000 to renovate the nightclub before its opening. Steve Rucastle was the general manager in 2016.
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