Case Study: The Huntsman, Drax

Robert Vevers and Katie Facer, the Huntsman in Drax, North Yorkshire

Robert and Katie have been in the pub trade for seven years. They had been running a small pub in Cumbria for the last couple of years when they decided it was time to move nearer to family in North Lincolnshire. They really wanted to find a property to lease that was at the heart of a local community, therefore enabling them to settle into their new life and make friends in the new area quickly.

In June 2007 Robert came across the Huntsman pub in Drax on the S&NPE website. Drax is a small village of only 500 in North Yorkshire and an easy 30-minute drive to his family. The Huntsman had been looking for a new permanent tenant since May 2007.

The pub fitted perfectly into S&NPE's Discovery Pub Company portfolio which was in development, being a smaller local community pub and showing great potential for growth. "The pub had suffered from little investment and even less focus from the changing management passing through over the last five years," said Tom Richardson, Yorkshire area business manager.

"The feedback I have received is that tenants and potential tenants alike welcome our realistic rent figures. This allows them to get on with running the pub while pushing to exploit the full potential of their business, working towards our barrelage discounts.

"The Discovery agreement offers £30 per barrel on all beer and cider sales, and an extra £60 per barrel paid on sales over a quarterly volume target. These terms are ahead of the leased

pub norms and reflect our desire to grow sales with

our tenants."