Orchid buys Premium Bars & Restaurants venues
Orchid Group, the private equity-backed pub operator announced today it had bought 43 venues from the administrators of Premium Bars & Restaurants (PBR).
The highly anticipated deal sees all but four of PBR's estate move over to Orchid including 13 Living Room sites, four Bel & The Dragon food-led pubs and three Prohibition bars. Twenty two of the PBR sites are freehold, the remainder are leased properties.
The move increases Orchid's estate to 292. The price for the acquisition was not revealed.
PBR employed more than 1,500 people and Orchid chief executive Rufus Hall said the deal would save "hundreds of jobs".
"The staff have been working for a company that's been in administration since August and up for sales since the beginning of the year," said Hall. "Our first job is to get into the business and reassure these people."
The group said it planned to invest more than £3m in its estate during the next 12 months, "further leveraging its operating disciplines and maximising the skill sets and talents of the acquired businesses".
Hall said Orchid would look at repositioning opportunities across some of the businesses: "What changes we make will depend on the business concerned. Living Room is a fantastic operation; it's just about layering some new thinking on it."
The old Ultimate Leisure business, the nightclub operation, would be assessed to see where it could go in a market that appeared to be declining, Hall said.
"We know what the market is like but the reality is there is still a big population of the clubs' target audience out there and there is an opportunity to make lots of money. You just have to look at what you can do with the sites, perhaps shifting the offer slightly."
Given Orchid's previous experience Hall said he hoped the PBR venues would be integrated into the main group within three to six month's time".
Hall said he saw the clubs, restaurants and food-led pub businesses operating independently under the Orchid umbrella. "We will leverage our control systems, and back it up with things like menu development and training. We will give them a sense of belonging, but they will be their own people."
Recent trading across the pre-PBR Orchid estate had been better than what Hall described as a "tough November". December had seen "genuine like-for-like growth", he said. "We've never been into mass discounting and we're growing our margins. Living Room traded flat last week, which in this market is a good result."
PBR went into administration in August this year, while its shares were suspended in December 2008, after delays in issuing its accounts. Former PBR shareholders the Reuben brothers were believed to have been in the running to buy the business for around £50m earlier this year but the deal never transpired.
Orchid, which itself went into - and straight out of - administration in December last year with the loss of around 150 jobs, is funded by GI Partners, the US-based private equity firm.
