Aided by its recent refinancing with OakNorth Bank, it marks the second acquisition Red Oak has made from Marstons in the last twelve months, having previously acquired three assets from them in February 2023.
The pubs are the Pied Bull, Shepshed, the Prince Albert, Kingswinford, the Queens Arms, Bakewell and the Victoria, Oxford.
Unique proposition
Red Oak co-founder and CEO Mark Grunnell said: “We are delighted to have kicked off our 2024 acquisition programme with these four high quality ‘free-of-tie’ assets.
“They take our free of tie division to more than 85 pubs and further demonstrate our unique proposition of flexibly operating substantial portfolios of both tied and free of tie assets.”
Red Oak, which was founded in 2011 by Aaron Brown and Grunnell, added it would “continue to seek out and secure business opportunities on an individual and package basis”.
Last summer the business added two West Midlands pubs to its growing estate, acquired from Everards while in October 2023 Red Oak acquired 17 sites from southwest based operator and brewer St Austell in a bid to extend its presence in the region.
Analysis of Red Oak’s acquisitions in the year to October 2023 by The Morning Advertiser revealed the independent Suffolk-based firm had procured some 25 sites from multiple pubcos across the country during the 12-month period, bringing its total number of venues to more than 200.
Next stage
Red Oak’s ongoing growth plans date back to August 2022, when the firm secured a six year £110m whole loan arranged by Excellion Capital to push forward with its expansion strategy.
The debt facility refinanced Red Oak’s existing debt and provided new capital to drive future development with £50m serving as an acquisition facility for new assets and investment including capital expenditure into the pubco’s estate.
OakNorth senior director of debt finance Mohith Sondhi said: “A key reason for RedOak choosing us as its funding partner was our deep knowledge of the sector and ability to support them in growing the business organically and through acquisitions.
“The acquisition of these four pubs is a great addition to the RedOak portfolio. We look forward to completing many more acquisitions with them in 2024.”
