09/04/2019
Click here to download the UK Leisure Sector - Q1 2019
Summary
In the last quarter, news from the restaurant market has again been mixed. Brasserie Bar Co, who operate both Brasserie Blanc and White Brasserie, announced an increase in turnover by 15.8% this year. Honest Burger commented they increased sales from £22.5m to circa £31m, with the EBITDA also increasing from £2.9m to £4.2m having opened new sites this year in Bristol, Picton Place, Waterloo, Holborn and Piccadilly. Rosa's Thai Café has also announced plans for expansion outside of London for eight units after a year of increased turnover.
However, on a different note, two more major brands Polpo, and Giraffe Concepts (which owns Ed's Easy Diner and Giraffe), have started restructuring under company voluntary arrangements. Bodean's reported a fall in turnover and a pretax profit decline from £1,038,231 to £264,615.
The pub sector has been increasingly buoyant in the first half of this year with multiple large deals all coming to fruition. This includes the largest free of tie public house transaction; Ei Group's free of tie estate (370 commercial properties) being purchased by Tavern Propco Limited for £348m. Young's acquired Redcombe Pubs and Asahi Europe Limited purchased Fullers' beer business. Stonegate Pub Company also purchased 32 Fever Bars and six central London Novus sites. Aprirose acquired British Land's public house portfolio with 45 Spirit Pub Company occupied sites for £130m. These highlight the buoyant market for large transactions and further consolidation in the sector.
The hotel market has also seen two notably substantial transactions with Vivion Capital Partners acquiring nine Hilton hotels for £246m equating to £171,000 per room and Topland Group selling the UK-based Hallmark Hotels platform of 26 hotels, 2,400 rooms, for £250m.
In the last quarter, with much discussion about uncertainty due to the ever on-going discussions of leaving the European Union, the pub sector market seems positively active and the casual dining restaurant market faces continued turbulence; it will be very interesting to see what happens over the next quarter.
UK Leisure Sector Q1 2019 Highlights
January 2019 -
Pubs: Charles Wells has announced plans to double the UK managed estate over the next calendar year.
Pubs: Tavern Propco Limited conditionally exchanges on the acquisition of the Ei Group free of tie estate of 370 units for a purchase price of £348m. Completion in March 2019.
Restaurants: Rosa's Thai Café turnover rose to £11,754,000 for the year ending March 2018 (£8,198,000 March 2017) with TriSpan acquiring a majority stake. They have announced they are set to open a further 8 sites a year outside of London.
Pubs: Young's acquire 15 Redcombe sites for their managed public house division, for a purchase price of £34m, representing a multiple of 8.5 times EBITDA.
Pubs: Asahi acquired Fullers' beer business for an enterprise value of £250m. This will include Fullers' beer, cider and soft drinks brewing and production and also The Griffin Brewery in Chiswick, Cornish Orchards, Star Brewing and Nectar imports.
Pubs: 32 Fever Bars has been acquired by Stonegate Pub Company for an undisclosed sum. In addition to this, six Novus sites within central London have also been purchased, located in the West End, Canary Wharf and The City.
February 2019 -
Pubs: Everards, the Leicestershire-based brewer and pub company, has reported a 17% increase in EBITDA for the year ending 20th September 2018. Profit before taxation increased £1m on last year's figures.
Hotels: Nine Hilton hotels have been acquired by Vivion Capital Partners for £246m. These were the remaining properties in the Zinc Hotels portfolio. The locations include Puckrup Hall, Watford, Leeds, Nottingham, Cobham, Northampton, East Midlands Airport, Croydon and York.
March 2019 -
Pubs: JD Wetherspoons have decided to dispose of 16 public houses throughout the country including Bodmin, Paignton, Rotherham and Stafford. The current strategy is to acquire freeholds of their leased sites. During this financial year they have to date spent £56m on carrying this out.
Pubs: AB InBev has altered their name in the UK to become 'Budweiser Brewing Group'.
Restaurants: Honest Burger has announced a rise in sales to £31m in January 2019 in comparison to last year's £22.5m. New sites opened in Holborn, Piccadilly, Picton Place, Bristol and Waterloo and a Deliveroo edition site. Like-for-like sales were up by 7.9%.
Restaurants: Brasserie Bar Co, which operates 17 White Brasseries and 19 Brasserie Blancs, has seen an increase in turnover by 15.8% for the year ending 1st July 2018 to £54m. The EBITDA has increased to £7.3m.
Hotels: Topland Group is disposing of its UK Hallmark Hotels Platform including 26 hotels (totalling 2,400 rooms) and a head office, for a reported price of approximately £250m.