Local lad brings troubled leisure chain back home

Dec 15 2009 By Chris Knox, The Journal

THE new Northumberland-born owner of troubled leisure chain Premium Bars and Restaurants (PBR) is returning the firm to its North East roots by moving back into its previous head offices in Newcastle city centre.

The Orchid group, which is based in Hertfordshire and owns almost 250 pubs and restaurants, has finally completed the purchase of PBR after announcing its intention to strike a deal back in early October.

It is now due to move into the firm’s original head offices in Mosley Street, after its former directors decided to move its base to Cheshire last year, and said it was planning to invest £3.5m in updating PBR’s portfolio. The firm is also considering reopening the three sites that were quickly closed down when PBR went into administration, resulting in the loss of 54 staff, including Rewind bar in Newcastle’s Bigg Market.

Orchid chief executive Rufus Hall said the deal would secure around 1,200 jobs at 39 PBR-managed outlets, including Blu Bambu and Sea nightclubs in Newcastle, bars Chase and Jimmyz in Newcastle, the Waterside Hotel on Newcastle Quayside and Rex Hotel in Whitley Bay, and 14 out of the 16-strong chain of Living Room restaurants.

Mr Hall, who was brought up in Ovingham and whose family live in the Hexham area, admitted that the North East connection to PBR was important to him.

"I’m pleased that the deal has finally been wrapped up," he said. "Because of position of PBR’s finances and the fact that it has sites that stretch across the country, it has been a tricky process.

"However, I am now looking forward to investing the £3.5m we have in reserve to improve the sites, including those in Newcastle that have become a little old-fashioned.

"My philosophy has always been sites that provide good wine, coffee, food and that appeal to women, and this is something I intend to continue with PBR.

"It’s important that a business has its head offices based at the centre of its operations. The fact that, as a Northumberland-born lad, I am bringing it back to the North East just makes it extra special."

He also said that Orchid, which already has nine North East pubs, had secured banking facilities that would allow it to pay off the £40m debt mountain left behind by PBR, which had been racked up after the firm borrowed £32m to fund the purchase of the Living Room chain.

Mr Hall, who will employ eight people at the Mosley Street office, said he was also looking to expand the PBR brand by acquiring new sites in the North East and beyond, and that he was due to meet staff at Blu Bambu to look at ways in which the site can be modernised.

PBR has been subject to wild speculation over recent weeks, with those previously in the frame including the billionaire Reuben Brothers and even former chief executive Bob Senior, now Newcastle-based Utopian Leisure.

The new deal also sees Orchid take on the Prohibition Bar & Grill chain, the Bel and the Dragon gastropub chain and Cotton Factory Bar, Huddersfield.