St Austell buys five pubs from Enterprise Inns

The pubs are the Albion in Bristol, the Blue Ball Inn in Exeter, the George Hotel in Plympton, the Rose & Crown in Yealmpton near Plymouth and the Cornish Arms in Tavistock, bringing St Austell’s estate to 173 sites.

It comes as Enterprise continues the sale of its “exceptional” sites.

As of 4 August, 82 exceptional outlets earmarked for disposal had been sold - Enterprise had earmarked up to 100 for sale.

Adam Luck, estate director at St Austell, said: “The acquisition of five new pubs is an exciting addition to our portfolio.

The purchases form part of the brewery’s on-going investment programme to develop our pub estate and our presence across the south west of England.

“Bristol is a particularly exciting area for us.

The Albion will be our first pub in the city and it’s an area that presents a great opportunity to develop both our beer sales in the pub estate and the free trade business following the appointment of an area sales manager in Bristol, earlier in the year.”

He added: “We are looking forward to welcoming the current lessees into the St Austell Brewery family and adding the new pubs to our existing portfolio of well-loved inns across the region.”

Meanwhile, St Austell is believed to be looking for a site in London to showcase its beers in the capital, where its flagship Tribute ale is selling well.

It’s also In February St Austell secured a new £40m refinancing package with Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays to “explore future growth opportunities”.

Bristol was seen as a key area for expansion, and the company also wants more sites to build its estate in Devon, with coaching inn-style operations favoured.