Brakspear looking to expand managed arm by ‘at least 2 a year’

The company has rebranded its managed arm, which is now renamed Honeycomb Houses and is eyeing expansion through acquisitions.

It is actively searching for new sites that are larger venues in rural locations and market towns in the south east and Cotswolds, that have a strong food trade, event space and preferably have accommodation.

Brakspear has also identified three pubs that will transfer into the company’s tenanted business. These are the Retreat in Staines, Surrey, the Dog & Duck in Wokingham, Berkshire, and the Golden Ball near Maidenhead, also Berkshire.

Changed criteria

Chief executive Tom Davies told The Morning Advertiser​: “Originally I was talking about 20 by 2020, we are now down to nine at 2021 so clearly I’m not very good at seeing into the future.

“Our criteria has changed, the business is evolving, the industry is evolving, since Covid, things are different. What we have learned is for us and bigger businesses with more opportunity for events certainly rooms, conferences as well as a great stand alone food and drink business is where we want to be.

“Numbers are less important, it’s more about the quality and size that we are after. We are at nine now, and I’m probably looking at two to four or five a year but that’s going to be a tough ask.

“We want freeholds, we want quality freeholds so it is more about the asset than about the number we have.

“But we do want to grow them and when we find them, we will buy them. Being in the south east, it’s a competitive market so we will see what we can find.”

Home from home atmosphere

Brakspear’s managed arm was founded in 2013 and retail marketing manager Jacqueline Fletcher outlined the division’s ethos.

She said: “‘Our House, Your Home’ is a simple but powerful way to express what Honeycomb Houses is all about, to our teams and our guests. 

“We encourage our team members to ‘treat colleagues as family, guests as friends and pubs like home’. If they host guests in the same way that they would treat friends at home, they’ll deliver the service we want at Honeycomb Houses: relaxed, attentive and personal to each guest, creating a ‘home from home’ atmosphere in our pubs.”