Activities
The Luton-based Laurel Pub Company is a rapidly-growing force in the managed, high-street pub and restaurant sector and has a strong food and late-night entertainment bias. R20 - the investment vehicle of Iranian property tycoon Robert Tchenguiz - is the major shareholder in the privately-owned company.
Laurel was created in 2001 from Whitbread’s exit from the pub and bar market. It quickly trimmed down its 3,000-strong estate by offloading its leased and non-high street venues.
It had nearly 160 sites when it became part of the growing empire of Robert Tchenguiz in late 2004. Since then Laurel has swelled its estate to more than 450 venues after consuming the Yates Group, the better part of the troubled SFI group, and the La Tasca Spanish tapas bar business.
Laurel currently operates under two divisions - Casual Dining, and Pubs and Bars.
Timeline
- March 2001: The Laurel Pub Company is born when Whitbread signs a deal to sell its 3,000-strong pubs and bars division for £1.6b to venture capitalist Morgan Grenfell Private Equity. Its key brand is the Hogs Head.
- May 2001: Laurel sells 439 leased pubs to Enterprise Inns for more than £260m.
- May 2002: Laurel offloads the remaining 1,860 pubs in its leased estate, Laurel Pub Partnerships, to Enterprise Inns.
- December 2002: Laurel strikes a sale-and-leaseback deal with property group London & Regional on 280 of its pubs. The deal is estimated to be worth £320m.
- August 2004: Laurel sells its 432 non-high-street pubs to Greene King for £645m.
- December 2004: The 157-strong Laurel group is bought for £151m (plus £2m in costs) by the Tchenguiz Family Trust. Yates owner, GI Partners, is one of the failed bidders for Laurel.
- May 2005: Laurel buys the Bolton-based Yates Group for £202m just six months after it is taken private (in November 2004) in a £155m management buy-out backed by US private equity group GI Partners. Both Tchenguiz and Laurel (in partnership with private equity group Mid-Ocean Capital) were among the disappointed bidders for Yates at the time. Yates, which was founded in 1884, brings to the table 126 Yates bars, 23 food-led Ha! Ha! Bar and Canteens, two Forno Vivo restaurants and seven mostly Mexican-themed restaurants called Santa Fe which it bought in February for £3.55m
- June 2005: Laurel buys 98 of SFI’s 150 pubs out of administration for £80m. Interestingly, Yates had tabled a £60-£75m bid for SFI in March 2005. The struggling, Woking-based SFI group was founded in 1985 by Tony Hill as Surrey Free Inns. Its brands include the food-led Slug & Lettuce, the Litten Tree, Fiesta Havana and Bar Med.
- March 2007: Tchenguiz's investment vehicle R20 enters a bidding war with Café Rouge owner Tragus Holdings for the La Tasca Spanish tapas bar business. R20 tops a £96m offer from Tragus with a £98.6m bid and then beats a revised bid from Tragus (for £99.7m) with a £104.2m offer. R20 completes the takeover of La Tasca for a total £123m (including debt) in May. It acquires 62 La Tasca outlets (including four in the USA), eight upmarket La Vina restaurants, and three Sam and Maxie's Grill and Smokehouse venues.
Operating data
Total number of outlets: around 460
Total number of staff: approximately 9,500
Casual dining - core brands
Slug and Lettuce (86)
Ha! Ha! Bar & Canteen (26)
La Tasca (64, including five in the USA)
La Vina: 9
Pubs and Bars - core brands
Yates's (114)
Others: (165)
Other brand names include: Hog's Head, Forno Vivo, Santa Fe, Bar Med, Casa, RSVP, Fiesta Havana
Strategy
The acquisition of La Tasca, which completed in May 2007, is expected to boost Laurel’s food business by 70% and the group plans to increase the number of three of its food-based brands over the next few years. It wants to double the number of La Tasca and Slug & Lettuce outlets from the current tally of 58 and 50 venues respectively, and to increase the number of Ha! Ha! Bar & Canteen s from 27 to 50.
Source: Chief executive, CatererSearch, May 2007
Chief executive
Paul Symonds
Key directors
Chief financial officer: Chris Keen
Commercial director: Suzanne Baker
Chairman: Ian Payne
Porter Tun House
500 Capability Green
Luton
Bedfordshire
LU1 3LS
Tel: 07002 528 735
Website: http://www.laurelpubco.com
