Carluccio's founder moves into pubs

Carluccio's founder Stephen Gee has launched a new Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) company for the pub sector.

The Real Food Pub Company aims to build up a group of country public houses in central and west England specialising in the provision of locally sourced, often organic, sustainable and seasonal food. Its first site, the Clanfield Tavern in Clanfield, Oxfordshire, has trebled turnover in eight months - and two more freeholds are in the pipeline. Real Food Pub Company has raised £1m - and expects to close by the end of this month having raised another £1m.

A spokesman said: "The Real Food Pub Company aims to be at the forefront of supplying not only locally sourced, organic, sustainable and seasonal food, but to go further by sourcing regional breed and free range meats, heritage fruits and vegetables, and home produced food." ​

The first pub, which is being run by Stephen Gee's son Tim, is starting to grow its own vegetables. Real Food Pub Company plans to raise a further £2m in each of the next two years, with a view to running around ten pubs eventually. Carluccio's was founded in 1999 and Stephen Gee is currently chairman.