Greene King aim to build Nest to last

The pubco's second franchise roll out is now underway with the first site the Palmer Tavern in Reading opening this week.

Nest aims to build on the success of it's predecessor Hive, which has seen rapid expansion over the last couple of years. However, while Hive offered a broader mix of food and drink, Nest is looking to create a more traditional wet-led community offer with investment into both Sky Sports and TNT.

While the focus will be primarily on drink, Greene King has also brought across a pizza offer into the business, from Hive, which will enable franchise operators to run a simple front of house controlled food operation, with plans in the pipeline to widen the choice and range down the road.

The company is hoping to set the new model off to the best start with a £360,000 investment into the Palmer Tavern, which is being headed up by experienced licensee Samantha Lane and her all female team.

Morning Advertiser's editor Ed Bedington went to see the new concept and spoke to Greene King's franchise operations director Penny Baldwin, and operator Lane, to find out more about the new roll out.

Baldwin said the plan for the concept was to roll out an initial 10 sites in the next 12 months, and was hoping to emulate the success of Hive which has grown to 45 sites since its launch in 2021, and each site would see a significant six figure investment ahead of each launch.

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