Activities
Greene King has evolved from a Suffolk-based brewer and pub operator into one of the UK’s largest national pub companies.
Its business is divided into four divisions – managed pubs and inns (Pub Company), leased and tenanted pubs (Pub Partners), the Brewing Company, and Belhaven (the Scottish brewer and pub operator it acquired in October 2005).
Most of its managed pubs are freeholds and its inns – a mix of pubs with rooms and destination food businesses – make it a significant player in the hotel market.
The group focuses on suburban and community pubs rather than the more volatile High Street sector. Most of the estate is unbranded, except for the food-led Hungry Horse brand and the more softly-branded Old English Inns.
In 2007, it entered the premium casual dining market with the acquisition of Loch Fyne Restaurants.
Best-selling beer brands include Greene King IPA, Abbot Ale, Old Speckled Hen, Ruddles County and Belhaven Best.
Timeline
- 1799: Benjamin Greene lays the foundations for the group when he establishes his brewing company in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.
- 1806: Greene forms a partnership with William Buck to buy the 100-year old Wright’s Brewery in Westgate.
- 1868: Frederick King buys the nearby Maulkins Maltings and renames it the St Edmunds Brewery.
- 1887: The two competing companies merge to form Greene, King and Sons. It quickly becomes one of England’s largest country brewers and the owner of 148 pubs.
- 1960s: Greene King now has 900 pubs
- 1996: The group snaps up the Magic Pub Company for £197.5m, adding 273 managed pubs to its estate including the Hungry Horse brand.
- 1998: Greene King buys 43 pubs with the acquisition of Beards of Sussex.
- 1999: The company buys Marston's southern estate of 165 pubs and spends £182m on acquiring Morland, which brings 422 pubs and the Old Speckled Hen and Ruddles beer brands into the fold.
- 2001: Greene King buys the 135-strong Old English Inns for £104.8m.
- 2002: In April, the group makes its first foray north up Scarborough with the acquisition of eight-strong Dalgety Taverns in Scotland. In June it buys up Morrells of Oxford for £67m, adding 57 managed and 50 tenanted pubs to the estate.
- August 2004: Greene King increases its pub estate by 25% with the acquisition of the Laurel Pub Company's 432 managed neighbourhood pubs.
- March 2005: The group completes a £600m securitisation against 904 of its pubs, both managed and tenanted.
- July 2005: Greene King buys TD Ridley & Sons for £45.6m. The purchase nets it 71 freehold and two leasehold tenanted pubs (mostly in Essex), a brewery in Chelmsford which it will close, and a distribution centre in Ipswich.
- August 2005: The company agrees to buy Belhaven, Scotland's oldest and largest regional brewer and pub operator, for £187m. Belhaven, which has boosted its sales and operating profits every year since 1989, operates 270 pubs including 101 managed and 169 tenanted properties. Greene King launches a £47m share pricing to fund the deal, which completes in October.
- June 2006: Greene King tables a £271m agreed offer for the 174-year-old East Midlands-based brewer and pub operator Hardys and Hansons. H&H has 268 mostly freehold pubs, of which 83 are managed and 185 tenanted, along with five Premier Travel Inn lodges. The group brews beers such as Olde Trip and Hardys & Hansons bitter at its brewery in Nottingham.
- September 2006: Greene King announces plans to close Hardys + Hansons’ Kimberley brewery in Nottingham by the end of the year.
- October 2006: The group strikes a multimillion-pound sponsorship deal to make its Greene King IPA brand the official beer of the England rugby team at Twickenham for a four-year period.
- November 2006: Admiral Taverns buys 155 Greene King pubs, mostly in the South-east of England. They include 140 tenanted or leased and 15 managed houses and the majority (138) are freehold or held on long leaseholds.
- June 2007: Greene King becomes the first company to sign a ‘Coffee Republic Served Here’ franchise which will see a Coffee Republic-branded outlet open in 28 London pubs initially, with plans to extend the partnership in the future.
- August 2007: Greene King buys the 36-strong Loch Fyne Restaurant group for £68.1m, giving it an immediate entry into the premium casual dining market. .
Financial snapshot
Full year
Turnover: £917.5m (2006: £818.6m)
Pre-tax profit: £145.9m (2006: £120.9m)
Half year
Turnover: £419.2m (2005: £359.9m)
Pre-tax profit: £67.1m (2005: £55.8m)
Financial year end: 29 April 2007
Half-year end: 15 October 2006
Operating data
Total number of pubs: 2,504
Number of Loch Fyne restaurants: 36
Number of staff: more than 14,000
Pub Company: 788 managed pubs
Pub Company is divided into two divisions: Destination (food-led) pubs, which numbered 278 in the year to April 2007, and Local Pubs, which numbered 510.
The division includes the Hungry Horse (107), Real Pubs (371), Town Locals (140), and Inns (170)
Full-year turnover: £546m (2006: £516.5m)
Full-year operating profit: £110.7m (2006: £102.1m)
Half-year turnover: £241.3m (2005: £244.4m)
Half-year operating profit: £51.9m (2005: £50.3m)
Pub Partners: 1,417 leased and tenanted pubs
Full-year turnover: £164m (2006: £149.6m)
Full-year operating profit: £74.7m (2006: £64.9m)
Half-year turnover: £72m (2005: 69.8m)
Half-year operating profit: £33m (2005: £29.8m)
Belhaven: 299 pubs (99 managed and 200 tenanted or leased)
Full-year turnover: £116.4m (2006: £115.1m)
Full-year operating profit: £23.3m (2006: £22.4m)
Half-year turnover: £55.8m (2005: £4.6m two-week contribution)
Half-year operating profit: ££11.5m (2005: £0.7m two-week contribution)
Brewing Company
Full-year turnover: £91.1m (2006: £87.7m)
Full-year operating profit: £23m (£20.6m)
Half-year turnover: £40.9m (2005: £41.1m)
Half-year operating profit: £10 m (2005: £9.8m)
Loch Fyne Restaurants: 36
Strategy
"This has been another very strong first half year, with encouraging organic growth and profit conversion. We have benefited from our acquisition of Belhaven, which is proving a great addition to Greene King. In the second half there will also be a full contribution from Hardys & Hansons, which is performing well, and integration is on track.
"Loch Fyne has a strong development pipeline and plans to increase the number of outlets by around 20% within this financial year. Over the medium term, Greene King sees potential to double the number of existing sites, including the conversion of a number of Greene King pubs. Senior management have committed to staying with the chain to facilitate its on-going growth within the Greene King group."
Source: preliminary results statement (3 July 2007) and acquisition of Loch Fyne Restaurants (7 August 2007)
Chief executive
Rooney Anand
Key directors
Financial director: Ian Bull
Managing director, Pub Company, Local Pubs: Jonathan Lawson
Managing director, Pub Company, Destination Pubs: Jonathan Webster
Managing director, Pub Partners: David Elliott
Managing director, Belhaven Brewery: Stuart Ross
Managing director, Brewing Company: Justin Adams
Non-executive chairman: Tim Bridge
Westgate Brewery
Westgate Street
Bury St Edmunds
Suffolk
IP33 1QT
Tel: 01284 763 222
Website: http://www.greeneking.co.uk
Greene King has grown consistently and profitably in recent years to become the UK’s third largest pub operator. Its inns with rooms made it the country’s 25th largest hotel operator in 2003-2004.
Its acquisition of the Laurel neighbourhood pubs in August 2004 increased the size of its estate by one-quarter. Its acquisition of Ridley’s in July 2005 has boosted its presence in and around Essex.
The group's unusual securisation deal in March 2005 – thought to be the first to cover both managed and tenanted pubs – left it well placed to continue its aggressive expansion strategy and fill in gaps in its national coverage. Its July 2005 acquisition of Ridley's boosted its presence in and around Essex, the October 2005 acquisition of Belhaven consolidated its position in Scotland, and the June 2006 takeover of Hardys and Hansons consolidated its presence in itsin the East Midlands.
Greene King entered the premium casual dining market in August 2007 with the acquisition of the 36-strong Loch Fyne Restaurant group, which it planned to double in numbers in the medium term.
