07/05/2025 10:37:00
HEINEKEN UK has announced it will invest £40m in upgrading and reopening pubs in its Star Pubs division in 2025, creating nearly 1,000 new jobs across the country. 25% (608) of HEINEKEN UK's 2,400 pubs will benefit from enhancements during the year, with 104 of these earmarked for transformational revamps costing £120,000 plus. Having spent £9.5m in 2024 reopening 62 long-term closed pubs, the company now has the lowest level of closures since 2019. It is continuing its drive to keep pubs open in 2025, and works are completed or underway to reopen ten pubs so far this year. 97% of HEINEKEN UK's pubs are in rural and suburban locations and its 2025 investment programme will reflect this, concentrating on community locals reports CLH News.
The owner of Premier Inn is planning to sell and lease back at least £1bn of its mature hotels to fund its future growth, advises The Caterer. Whitbread said there were signs the property investment market was improving and it had a pool of sites where there was "an opportunity to generate additional value". Whitbread completed the sale and leaseback of two hotels for £56m in the first half of 2025, creating an average yield of just over 4%. It is progressing on the sale and leaseback of a further seven hotels across a variety of regional UK locations. At least £1bn of the group's more mature properties will be "recycled" this way as part of a five-year plan to return at least £2bn to shareholders. Chief executive Dominic Paul said "confidence" in the five-year plan meant Whitbread would complete a £250m share buy-back over the next 12 months.
London hotel, Montcalm At The Brewery, is looking to get the green light for an expansion project to help put the business on more of a level playing field with the ever-increasing number of luxury hotels in the capital, reports Boutique Hotelier. The hotel is seeking permission to increase its bedroom count by eight bedrooms, to take its total room number to 246, to enable it to 'meet evolving guest expectations and remain at the forefront of the luxury market', according to the application.
Travelodge has acquired 11 hotels taking its portfolio of UK properties to 588, advises The Caterer. The acquisitions include nine former Hotel Campanile hotels, which have a total of 951 rooms. Five of the nine hotels have been acquired on a freehold basis and four on long-leaseholds. The hotels are located in Birmingham, Bradford, Dartford, Leicester, Liverpool, Manchester, Northampton, Milton Keynes and Swindon. Two further hotel acquisitions include a 43-bedroom former Ibis located in Bromsgrove and a 74-bedroom former CitiLodge in Wakefield.
Reddington Pub Company relaunched two venues in Nottingham over the bank holiday weekend: The Anchor pub and Tom Browns restaurant. With a combined history spanning over a century, The Anchor and Tom Browns have long been Gunthorpe staples. Nestled along the banks of the River Trent, The Anchor is a family-friendly destination that offers pub classics with a modern twist, also housing its own café and courtyard. Just next door, the adult-only Tom Browns restaurant delivers a high-end dining experience alongside live music and entertainment. Reddington Pub Company has invested over £2 million to transform both sites, creating 100 new jobs in the local area, writes Pub & Bar.
Boom Battle Bar has seen revenues increase by almost a third, helping drive up the experiential leisure business' total revenue by 17% for the year ended 31 March 2025 says MCA Insight. XP Factory has achieved a 17% increase in group revenue, to £57.3m, for the full year to 31 March 2025, driven by a strong performance from its Boom Battle Bar Business. Boom Battle Bar recorded a 30% increase in revenue, to £41.9m for the tear, while XP's Escape Hunt Business saw revenue rise by 7%, to £14.1m. Adjusted EBITDA (pre-IFRS 16) is expected to be at "the upper end of market expectations", of between £6.2m and £6.4m, versus £5.1m achieved in the full year to March 2024.
The historic London pub Ye Olde Swiss Cottage, which gave the tube station its name, has been granted protected status, says the Evening Standard.