Wessex sells 28 pubs to Ladhar Group

The Ladhar Group claims it is now the biggest pub and club operator in the North East after buying 28 pubs from Wessex Taverns.

The group, which operates many of Newcastle's best known night spots including Greys Club, Legends, Hoko 10 and For Your Eyes Only, has been in negotiations with the Wessex to purchase its portfolio since November.

The acquisition, for an undisclosed sum, gives the North Tyneside based leisure operator a further 28 outlets which are mainly located in the northeast region but which stretch down as far as London, Oxford and Norwich.

The Pacific Bar in Northumberland Road, Newcastle together with a property in Sunderland, which were also part of the Wessex Taverns portfolio, were not included in the deal.

The Ladhar Group, which is owned by brothers Baldev and Amarjit Ladhar, has grown dramatically and is pursuing an aggressive national development strategy in the leisure sector.

Commenting on the deal, Baldev Ladhar said: "We are really pleased to have completed this deal, which not only provides some well known, good quality leisure outlets for us, but which allows us to save 340 jobs at the same time.

"When we first heard that Wessex Taverns was considering a sale of its portfolio in November we have been hard at work to strike the deal. This means that we now have 62 leisure outlets stretching from Glasgow to Bournemouth. We are always looking for opportunities to grow the business and these 28 units sit very well alongside our existing spread of bars, pubs and clubs."

Ladhar said it was too early to talk about the group's plans for the Wessex Taverns sites but "we will certainly be looking long and hard at how we might make improvements over the months ahead."