Hydes Brewery buys Chester pubco as platform for food-led business

Hydes Brewery has acquired the Chester-based Woodward & Falconer Pub Co, which it said would provide a platform for further acquisitions of food-led businesses.

Hydes said the acquisition would increase opportunities for staff across all four sites, promote learning and improvement within the business and result in enhanced buying terms.

Woodward and Falconer was founded in 2001 and has built up a group of six high quality food-led pubs located in Chester, the Wirral and North Wales. The deal includes, The Goshawk and The Stamford Bridge near Chester, The Boathouse in Neston and The Golden Lion near Wrexham, with the remaining two pubs being extracted from the company and will be retained by Jeremy Woodward.

The company said: “These four sites are an ideal geographical fit for Hydes and grow the company’s food-led destination business to 11 sites with a projected turnover of more than £15m, over half of which will be food sales. We are delighted that Duncan Falconer, who has managed the Woodward and Falconer business on a day to day basis since its inception, will be joining Hydes. Duncan’s skills will not only contribute to the continuing strong performance of the Woodward and Falconer pubs but will benefit the Hydes business as a whole."

Hydes managing director Chris Hopkins said “This exciting acquisition represents a positive strategic move for the business. We very much look forward to working with the excellent team’s at all four pubs as we continue to develop our food-led business.”