Dorbiere to invest £1m in refurbs

Director Ebrahim Mukadam also said he was in negotiations with a large pubco over two pubs in the suburbs of Manchester.

He said: “We would spend about £400,000 on each and then another £200,000 to £300,000 on each to improve them. We would put a carvery in one and in the other a standard food operation focussing on barbecues, pies and steaks.”

Dorbiere currently operates 54 pubs with 18 in the north-east, 18 in Manchester and surroundings and the rest in Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire.

He said: “We are looking for pubs but we are also trying to spend some time improving our existing pubs. About half are community pubs with very little food. We are looking at how we can expand food operations into them.

In its most recent results — for the year ended 30 September — Dorbiere’s turn-over rose to £13.4m from £12m the year before. Pre-tax profit increased to £1.1m from £743,495 the year before.

Mukadam said the company was on track to hit its target of growing revenue by 4% in 2015.