Red Oak Taverns completes first purchase of 2022

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Company news: Red Oak Taverns has bought the Vine pub in Worthing, West Sussex

Multiple operator Red Oak Taverns has made its first pub acquisition of this year with the purchase of the Vine in Worthing, West Sussex.

The company, which now operates more than 200 sites, was founded in 2011 by Mark Grunnell and Aaron Brown, which privately own the business alongside a small number of like-minded investors.

The pub estate is predominantly concentrated in the south, south west, north west and the Midlands in England.

Co-founder and chief executive Mark Grunnell said: “Following the five portfolio acquisitions we completed in 2021, we are delighted to start our 2022 programme with the Vine pub."

Pub estate growth focus

He added: “We are looking forward to welcoming the tenant partner of the Vine to the Red Oak business.

“We continue to focus on growing our pub estate through single and multiple pub package acquisitions to develop our pub business further.”

At the end of last year (December), the company completed the acquisition of eight free-of-tie sites in Bristol for an undisclosed sum from Euphorium Pubs – its fifth portfolio acquisition in 12 months.

This followed the group securing funding with a £15m acquisition facility from OakNorth Bank.

The capital was used to acquire nine pubs from Hall & Woodhouse in September last year. The sites were across the south with pubs in Surrey, West Sussex, Dorset and East Sussex featured.

Previous purchases

The deal to acquire the Hall & Woodhouse pubs was Red Oak’s third pub package purchase in 2021.

It followed a 10 pub deal from Wells & Co in February and three pubs from Reclamation Inns at the start of last year (January). Those 10 tenanted and leased pubs were in Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Northamptonshire.

The three Reclamation Inns sites were the Great Western in Bewdley, Worcestershire; the Railway in Alsager in Crewe, Cheshire; and the Black Boy in Bridgnorth, Shropshire.

Looking at 2019, Red Oak added to its portfolio in August of that year with the purchase of 18 leased and tenanted pubs from Wadworth.