owner, Pubfolio (new) Clive Rayden managing director, County Estates Management (new entry) Peter Shalson's company Pubfolio is expanding at a rate of knots. Shalson, a coathanger magnate by trade, joined the pub-owning big time in December 2004 when he shelled out £162.5m for 545 pubs from Punch, bringing his total estate to around 800 pubs. (Just to show the dizzying rate of turnaround in the sector, Punch only bought these pubs from InnSpired two months earlier.) County Estate Management (CEM) is charged with running Pubfolio's pubs, under the leadership of Clive Rayden, who is a director and shareholder of Pubfolio. Clive and his brother, Paul, established CEM, which also runs pubs for other companies, back in 1991. Unusually for a large operator, Shalson believes in offering his tenants a free-of-tie option in return for a rent increase. He explains: "We buy a tenanted pub with a beer tie. We release the tenant from the tie so they have freedom of choice where to buy their beer from, put them on a market rental, give them a lease of up to 25 years. It gives them freedom of where they buy beer, an incentive to grow their business." Talks of a takeover of the 235-strong Heritage Pub Company came to nothing, but Pubfolio is tipped as a possible buyer for some of the 250 pubs that are being sold by tenanted pubco Avebury Taverns.
