Stonegate – skint maybe folding
Returned to profitability in Q1, pre-tax profit of £23m compared to loss of £17 previous year.
Owns 4,400 pubs including the Slug & Lettuce chain, bought out Enterprise Inns including their £1.7bn debt just before Covid hit
Looking to refinance £2.2 billion in debt.
This hasn’t really been reported in the trade press that I could find, but in the Guardian. Trade press has focussed on the return to profitability, not that it’s been unable to refinance its debts.
Hearing already from tenanted landlords that they’re being offered the opportunity to buy the freehold lease to the pubs, and some smaller pub groups are already buying a few pubs here and there as Stonegate look to shed part of their estate.
Scottish Pubs Code
Comes into effect October 7th – if relevant legislation gets through parliament.
There’s already a Pubs Code in England, but as we saw last week having a Pubs Code and having one that’s enforced are two separate things.
Crap Weather – Crap Crops
Between droughts on the continent meaning the water table is too low for a lot of the older hop varieties, and serious flooding in the UK meaning the fields are water-logged, it’s going to be a really bad harvest year, with all that entails.