Award-winning operator launches new pub company
Michael Ibbotson, the man behind the award-winning North Yorkshire pub the Durham Ox, is forming a new pub and inns business called Provenance Inns.
Building on the success of the Ox, in Crayke, North Yorkshire, owner/operator Ibbotson and his business partner Chris Blundell, whose background is in food retail, have already acquired three pubs, all within a half hour's drive of the village.
"We want to find the right pub in the right village," Ibbotson said. "We are not a pubco in the traditional sense of the word, rather we own and operate local, freehold pubs, offering great beer, food and accommodation, with great hosts and staff."
The new outfit's first opening will be the Carpenter's Arms in Felixkirk, which will undergo an intensive three week refurbishment once the current tenants have left the site next month.
Another pub, the Oak Tree in Helperby, was bought as a closed site from Punch Taverns and will undergo a more radical transformation which including purchase costs will see around £1m spent on the property.
Finance for the deals came from the company's own resources and lending from HSBC bank.
"We had to do our homework with the bank and show our trading track record. Plus it helped having the loans secured against freehold assets. If we'd have been after leaseholds the banks wouldn't have touched it," he added.
Provenance Inns wants to grow to up 10 sites in the next few years, Ibbotson said.
He added that it helped his growth plans that a number of larger pub owning groups were looking to sell off assets which were surplus to their requirements but which could fit his company's plans.
"We've been offered some sites but they tend to be doing really well already and are quite expensive. We want pubs that offer us growth potential in terms of the business, the reputation, the turnover and the property itself," he said.
The Durham Ox, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary next week, won 'Freehouse Pub of the Year' at the 2008 Publican Awards.
