Sale of Laurel sites slow going

Wetherspoon is

only buyer so far

Sources close to the administration process at Laurel Pub Company expect to sell only a fraction of the 90 sites.

The venues have been in administration with Kroll for just over two months, with JD Wetherspoon (JDW) the only confirmed buyer so far. One source said: "I expect the final figure for sold sites to be comfortably in double figures. It will be a fraction of the 90, but we're upbeat about the interest. There's a lot of interest in some sites, none in others. There are a large number of sites with things wrong with them."

JDW has added a fifth site to the four it has already acquired from the 90 or so Laurel sites in administration. The company has added a former Slug & Lettuce site in Ealing, London.

The pub, which is closed, has a rent of £65,000 per annum on a lease that expires in 2031. Chief executive John Hutson told the MA: "We've spent 30 years looking for a site in Ealing. We have one in nearby Acton, which does well. It's not huge, but it is well located." Previously, JDW acquired a Hogshead in Weymouth, a Slug & Lettuce in Oxford, and Bar Meds in Shrewsbury and Bournemouth. Hutson said the company was paying small premiums to cover the costs of the administrator.

The Ealing site will be refurbished and is expected to re-open in a few months. Hutson said a few weeks ago that the normal fit-out cost for a leasehold site was about £1.1m so JDW was buying the former Laurel sites for a fraction of normal fit-out costs.