M&B hopes to sell 20 pubs for £20million

Mitchells & Butlers (M&B) expects to sell around 20 pubs in the second half of its financial year in a move expected to raise £20m.

The sell-off means the company will have raised a total of £151m this financial from sell-offs - it raised £131m in the first half with the sale of 102 pubs to Trust Inns and a number of goldbrick sites in London.

M&B also expects to move another 20 to 25 pubs over to its franchise division, which currently runs 77 sites.

Turning over managed pubs to franchise has been an alternative strategy at M&B for sites that do not lend themselves to a company brand, often because existing branded sites are nearby.

Chief executive Tim Clarke revealed that one or two pubs from the Whitbread acquisition would be turned over to the franchise division after approaches from entrepreneurs.

Meanwhile, M&B has also revealed it is stepping up its branded coffee offer with more than 1,000 pubs having one by the time of the smoking ban in England on 1 July.

The branded coffee offers will include Costa, the brand owned by rival Whitbread.