MA300: Real Pub founders Nick Pring and Malcolm Heap plan return to the pub sector

Under the terms of the agreement with Greene King, where they worked for two years following the takeover, the pair are not allowed to work in a competing business for six months from the time they left the company in April this year.

Pring told the conference: “Next year we will be back in the market. We will start again.

“There are lots of opportunities out there, maybe not a freehold company like before - we are unlikely to have another 2008.

“The most exciting thing for us is taking the first three to six pubs.”

Regarding their exit from Greene King, Pring said: “We have put in place a team at Greene King to do more Realpubs beyond the 22 we now have, and maybe to go outside the M25.

“That would serve people who have enjoyed the London market and since moved out but still want to have that London experience.”

Pring added: “We feel we’ve left Greene king with a good understanding of maintaining an independent pub culture. They’ve handled Realpubs very sensitively and we think they’ve played a good hand. Greene King will be a force to be reckoned with in the London market in the future.”