Amber Taverns raises £5m for 30 pub openings

North West pub firm Amber Taverns has raised an additional £5m in funding, with which it plans to open a further 30 pubs and create 300 new jobs.

The funding comes in the form of a £4m revolving credit facility (RCF) from Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets Merseyside plus £1m in loan notes from LGV Capital (LGV), the company's majority shareholders.

The company, which currently has 30 sites, was founded in 2005 and was purchased in October 2010 by LGV, which backed the existing management team led by chairman Clive Preston in its strategy of taking struggling community pubs and revitalising them to create sustainable businesses.

Clive Preston, chairman of Amber Taverns, said: "It's been an exciting five years during which we have demonstrated time after time that good wet-led pubs are a sound investment and provide a valuable local amenity. We have a highly professional management team who between them have decades of experience in the licensed trade and have the ability to source the best located properties, fit them out to a very high standard and put in true value for money pricing."

Tim Rigg, Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets area director, Merseyside, North Wales and West Lancashire, added: "We have been working with the Amber Taverns team for a number of years. Their ongoing success and growth is impressive, not least in the current economic climate."

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By Neil Gerrard

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