Joule's Brewery snaps up 19th pub

Joule's Brewery has exchanged contracts on its 19th pub.

The brewer and pub retailer has acquired Ye Olde Rose and Crown in the centre of Stafford — the site is being sold by Enterprise Inns.

Steve Nuttall, managing director at Joule's, said: "Building our new brewery was both ambitious and complex and developing the pub estate by comparison was quite straightforward.

"Our interest has always been in old English-style pubs — pubs which have served their communities for centuries."

Nuttall said the latest acquisition would be "absolutely the last one for us for a while until we get a few of the pubs in our development pipeline refurbished".

Joule's built a new £1.5m brewery in Market Drayton, Shropshire, having acquired the UK rights to the famous Joule's beer brand — dormant for 30 years — in perpetuity from Coors, and is due to start brewing this month. Nuttall said earlier this year: "Our pubs are closer to franchises. There is much more coherence than normal across our tenanted pubs, with sites operating as a family of pubs.

"There is a common thread running through them — they're old-fashioned in a good way. Our estate is a collection of old pubs restored rather than just refurbished, and we are proud of it — they are all different, but all connected to our brewery."

Last month, Joule's bought the Royal Oak in Eccleshall, Staffordshire, from Punch for an undisclosed sum.

Nuttall said: "The Royal Oak requires a huge spend, which will make it our biggest investment. We value it highly as the location is core to our strategy.

"We have a very high regard for Eccleshall."