Entrepreneur toasts pub chain turnaround
Jan 11 2008 by Peter McCusker, The Journal
SERIAL pub company entrepreneur John Sands is toasting a healthy profit after sparking a remarkable turnaround at a 90-outlet chain he bought and sold with two business partners – in just six months.
Mr Sands, a former Journal North-East Business Executive of the Year, developed the Hartlepool-based Pubmaster chain into one of the biggest in the country and then sold the 3,200 pub estate in 2003 for £1.2bn.
Now Mr Sands has repeated the magic formula with Norfolk-based GRS Inns which he bought along with Richard Grundy and Howard Thornton in June last year from Punch Taverns and sold last week to London Town.
Mr Sands said: “GRS had been left to wither. All it needed was a little nurture and care. The estate consisted of around 90 leasehold pubs when we bought it. We sold a few of the loss-makers and regenerated a number of outlets and were then approached with a bid to buy the business by London.”
Mr Sands, 60, and his two fellow directors have secured a 13.5% equity stake in the enlarged London Town group and he told The Journal he was “quite happy” with the remuneration secured in the transaction.
Whitley Bay-born Mr Sands, who now lives in Wynyard, near Hartlepool, was GRS chairman and the buy-out has seen him appointed to the London Town board as non-executive chairman.
A spokesman for London Town, which now has 282 pubs, mainly in the South, said it “welcomed the experience brought to it by the appointment of Mr Sands”.
Mr Sands said: “I am delighted to have joined the board of London Town following the acquisition of GRS. This combination creates a dynamic estate of managed and tenanted pubs and injects a new managed skill base to the London Town business.”
Mr Sands, who is standing down from the North-East Tourism Advisory Board at the end of the month, also has big plans for his Wear Inns pub venture.
This was launched in 2006 along with managing director John Weir and so far has six outlets across the North-East and Yorkshire, with plans to double that number in the coming months.
Mr Sands said: “Wear Inns aim to give a good quality offering to the drinking man.
“We’re more of a Queen Vic than a Rovers Return.
“We do food but it’s mainly a snack menu. Our prices are competitive with beer at £1.80 and lager at £2.”
Despite the gloom among many in the pub sector Mr Sands said trading has been very healthy.
Wear Inns is currently looking at around two pubs a week and looks to invest £100,000 to £150,000 in its purchases.
It has three North-East pubs: the Britannia in Houghton-le-Spring, the Elephant in Ashington and the Grey Horse in Whitburn as well as three in Yorkshire.
