Star reveals pub disposal plans

He said the company has “a good estate by and large” and there are “no plans for large scale disposals”.

But Jowsey explained: “We are disposing of some pubs but only where we can’t see a future. It’s like every pub estate: you sell those pubs where the demographic has changed, [where] you can’t make them work, basically.

"I think this year the plan is to sell 50 of the 1,350," he told M&C Report.​

Recent sites placed on the market include two in Scotland with CDLH. The Horse and Hound near Hawick and the Inn at Longcroft near Bonnybridge are both being marketed for offers over £225,000.

Uncertainty​

Jowsey said Star Pubs & Bars reinvests the proceeds from disposals into its capital investment programme. Regarding acquisitions, Jowsey said: “It’ll be really nice to get this consultation [on the proposed statutory code] out the way because that uncertainty will prevent us buying a lot more.”

He said that currently it’s "really difficult" to make acquisitions because "you just don’t know what the future holds".

“I think we would like to grow the estate if we can but it’s got to be the right opportunity, so it has to be the right pubs. At this stage there’s too much uncertainty in the market to consider doing that in a large-scale way.”

Asked whether acquisitions could be in large packages of hundreds of pubs or in smaller tranches, Jowsey said: “A lot depends on the opportunity to be honest. I wouldn’t want to rule anything out or anything in. It depends very much on the quality of the opportunity - and the price, of course.”