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By Matt Furnell, 25/01/2012 9:46 am

Old English Inns up and down the country will be serving up award winning fish and chips from now on after winning the Best Foodservice Outlet Serving Fish and Chips at the National Fish & Chips Awards 2012 this week. 
 
The hotel and restaurant chain’s fish and chips is its biggest selling dish and they expect sales to swell following the recognition.
 
Speaking about their success, managing director for Old English Inns, Jonathan Webster said, “This is a fantastic accolade for us.  Fish and Chips are as much a British Institution as real ale, pubs and country inns are, so now our customers know they’ll get the best fish and chips along with our award winning ales in great pubs and inns up and down the country.  A perfect combination”.
 
Old English Inn’s who have 100 inns throughout England beat off competition from Marston’s pub company who were also finalists in the same category.

Find out more about Old English Inns

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By Matt Furnell, 24/01/2012 3:18 pm

 NatWest has become the official funding partner for Greene King Meet & Eat Pub Franchises.

Franchisees looking to take a Meet & Eat franchise can approach NatWest and receive preferential borrowing rates to support the franchise opportunity.

Speaking about the funding partnership, Simon Longbottom, managing director for Greene King Meet & Eat franchises said, “NatWest has been involved with the franchise sector for 30 years so by linking up with them and their franchise fund, franchisees looking at our business opportunities have easier access to secure funding for their plans.

“We’re seeing our Meet & Eat franchise pubs bucking the trend in terms of expected returns and annual income for the pubs. Currently the return on investment is 45% on an expected investment of £100,000 allowing a franchisee to typically expect a projected annual income of £45k per year. So this partnership with NatWest makes real sense in helping us develop the right package for franchisees going forward”.

Mark Scott, NatWest, Director, Franchise Development said, “I have been working closely with Greene King since the launch of the franchise and am pleased to offer Greene King Meet & Eat franchisees the banking services they need to fulfil their ambitions. Every franchisee taking over a Meet & Eat franchise will be supported by a specialist bank manager whose experience in the franchise sector will help them get off to the best possible start”.

Greene King is rolling out Meet & Eat franchises across the country. The NatWest Franchise Fund is endorsed by the British Franchise Association (BFA) and the Greene King Meet & Eat franchise received British Franchise Association accreditation earlier this year.

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By Matt Furnell, 12/12/2011 2:53 pm

Greene King has today launched a new Greene King Meet & Eat website where customers can look up where their nearest Meet & Eat pub is.  The new website, www.greenekingmeetandeat.co.uk can be accessed from a desktop pc as well as a mobile phone.  Whilst on the move consumers can view pubs near them, check out the entertainment, register for offers and also have a look at new Meet & Eat franchise business opportunities too.

Speaking about the new site, managing director for Greene King’s Meet & Eat franchise pubs, Simon Longbottom said, “This website will provide consumers, who are getting to know and love Meet & Eat pubs, where they can locate one.  The menu and offer is consistent across the Meet & Eat estate so they’ll be guaranteed excellent service every time.  As the numbers grow we’ll add more and more pubs onto the site which all have their own individual webpage links”.

The new site features an easy map to view where Meet & Eat pubs can be found with links to the individual pubs showing menus, events and offers.  On accessing each pub, customers can find directions to the pub from where they are.

Greene King Meet & Eat has opened 24 Meet & Eat pubs in England in the last year and will be developing more across the country in the coming months. Meet & Eat franchise opportunities can be found on www.greenekingpubsfranchise.co.uk.

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By Matt Furnell,

Greene King Pub Partners licensees are being kept up to date on all business building activities and opportunities with a new bi-monthly magazine called Innsight.  Launched in both print and as an electronic version, licensees are encouraged to take advantage of the deals and support pulled together by Pub Partners to help them drive their business.

The new Innsight magazine profiles new tools on PubPartners.net to help licensees, offers seasonal promotions and big deals on products and real ales, creates ideas to maximise key events and dates and provides advice from the KnowHow online tool. It aims to focus licensees on what’s available and simplify the ways they can gain access to support and promotions for their retail offer, saving them time and money in the process.

Simon Longbottom, managing director of Greene King Pub Partners said, “We have a wealth of expertise to help licensees grow and develop their businesses and it’s important that we continue to offer them an insight into how they can do this, improving their time management and making things as simple as possible.  Our new publication delivers that in one place, easily and effectively”.

The Innsight magazine is delivered in print and available online for all Pub Partners licensees and is issued on a bi-monthly basis.  This month licensees are encouraged to take advantage of the great product deals and create their own January sales as well profiling their promotions using the correx boards on offer to them.

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By Matt Furnell,

Dave Root must be the longest serving drinker of Greene King IPA with an estimated 100,000 pints to his name, so on his 93^rd birthday he has been recognised by his local landlord Wayne Evans and brewer Greene King for his fantastic loyalty.

Drinking Greene King IPA in the Royal Oak in Halstead since the tender age of 18 he was presented with an engraved tankard from Greene King so he can enjoy his favourite tipple for a long time to come.

Landlord of the Greene King pub, the Royal Oak, Wayne Evans said, “Dave really is part of the furniture.  He arrives every day and enjoys his favourite brew and we thought his loyalty to the drink and the pub needed to be recognised and to do just that on his birthday.  It’s great to have him as a customer and certainly keeps my cask ales sales up”.

Business development manager for Greene King, Geoff Liyanage said, “Greene King wanted to say a big thanks to Dave for drinking and enjoying our beer and pubs for so many years.  He knows a decent pint when he sees one and a good pub and this was just a way of sending our gratitude”.

Dave who not only received an engraved tankard was also given a few bottles of Greene King IPA to enjoy at home and a pint or two to have in the pub. He said of the presentation, “This is just wonderful, I’m overwhelmed. I never thought you could receive recognition for just enjoying a pint!”.

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By Matt Furnell, 28/04/2011 1:12 pm

As the Royal Wedding fast approaches, licensees of The Cottage in Upper Bucklebury, home parish of bride-to-be Kate Middleton, are busy making preparations to help local customers celebrate the big day in style.

Licensees Gary and Amanda Bush, who run The Cottage with pub operator Greene King, are inviting local residents to join in the fun with a day packed full of activities and entertainment for all the family.

Free breakfast baps will kick off the celebrations at 10.30am, with the party running all day and ending with a stunning £6,000 fireworks show at 9.00pm. Other plans include a rodeo, bungee run and football challenge, while on the menu will be candy floss, an all-day hog roast and barbeque.

No one will be going thirsty either with a beer tent and pink champagne and strawberries flowing all afternoon. And of course, there will be a giant screen to watch the happy couple tie the knot.

Licensee Gary said: “We’re delighted to offer the local community a place to celebrate the happy day in Kate Middleton’s home village. We’re the only pub in Upper Bucklebury and wanted to really go to town with the celebrations. It will be a fantastic day and we look forward to welcoming all our regulars to toast the new bride and groom.”

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By Matt Furnell,

27 Apr 2011 – Strong trading momentum continues to year-end; acquisition further enhances London presence

Greene King announces a pre-close trading update for the 51 weeks to 24 April 2011.

Strong trading momentum has continued throughout the second half of our financial year through to our year-end. Good weather across the UK has undoubtedly helped trading in the last few weeks, but our continued strong growth is driven by our focus on strategically important categories such as food and the consistent delivery of our industry-leading customer value, service and quality across the business.

Our expanding Retail business is the engine for our ongoing growth and sector outperformance.

Greene King Retail like-for-like (LFL) sales growth is 4.7%, implying 8.2% growth since week 35, the last week to have been impacted by snow. Our largest, and award-winning, retail brand, Hungry Horse, now has 158 outlets and is achieving LFL sales growth of 10.1%. Food continues to grow in importance for Greene King Retail, with LFL food sales growth of 8.2% driving expected sales participation towards 40% for the year. Belhaven retail LFL sales growth is now 4.0% and the recently acquired Cloverleaf business is delivering strong LFL sales growth. We expect margins for the full year in Greene King Retail to be slightly ahead of last year.

Pub Partners remains in growth after 48 weeks, despite the challenges faced by the overall tenanted and leased sector. LFL EBITDA is now +0.8% and average EBITDA per pub is +1.9%. We continue to invest some of our growth into providing long-term support for our licensees to help improve both their customer offer and the overall trading environment in our tenanted and leased pubs.

Our brewing businesses continue to outperform their markets: Brewing Company total volume is +2.0% with own-brewed volume (OBV) at -2.5%, although since week 35, OBV has been in line with last year; our core English ale brands, Greene King IPA, the UK’s no.1 cask ale, Old Speckled Hen, the UK’s no.1 premium ale, and Abbot Ale, the UK’s no.2 premium cask ale are level with last year; and volume of our market leading Scottish ale brand, Belhaven Best, is +1.8%.

We have recently completed the integration of both Belhaven and Cloverleaf, while earlier this month, we announced the completion of negotiations with our banks which resulted in a new, five-year, £400m, revolving credit facility to support our retail expansion strategy.

Our balance sheet and cashflow remain healthy and in line with our expectations.

Acquisition

In line with our strategy to expand and improve the quality of our Retail estate, we are pleased to announce the completion of the acquisition of Realpubs for a total consideration of £53.1m. Realpubs currently operates 14 premium London pubs, of which all but one are freehold, and their offer is a well developed and highly successful one, targeting the premium, pub dining customer within London. The acquisition is being funded by our existing bank facility.

These are large, highly profitable and well invested sites with forecasted average weekly turnover of £24.5k in 2011 and forecasted average EBITDA per site of £450k. The implied forward EBITDA acquisition multiple is 8.4x. Food is currently 33% of sales and growing strongly, with around half of all sales being driven by customers coming to eat in the pubs.

Malcolm Heap and Nick Pring, the two founders of Realpubs, have been retained for a minimum of two years. They will become part of the Retail management team helping to spearhead our growth and offer development in London, including the conversion of a significant number of existing Greene King pubs to the Realpubs premium urban local concept, and within the premium segment on a national basis.

Rooney Anand, Greene King chief executive comments:

“Driven by our clear and consistent strategy of delivering excellent customer value, service and quality, trading at Greene King has been strong and as a result, we remain confident for the outcome for the year. We continue to supplement strong underlying organic growth with targeted, value-creating acquisitions to accelerate our strategic aim of growing our Retail business to around 1,100 pubs and building the best Retail estate in the UK.

We are excited by today’s acquisition as it fits well with our strategy, by further strengthening our London presence and accelerating the development of our premium pub offer. The addition of Realpubs takes the total number of Greene King sites within the M25 to 217 and positions us strongly ahead of, during and after the Olympics in London in 2012, when London and its pubs and restaurants will be visited by tourists from across the world.”

For further information:

Greene King plc
Rooney Anand, Chief Executive Tel: 01284 763222
Ian Bull, Group Finance Director

Financial Dynamics
Ben Foster Tel: 020 7831 3113

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By Matt Furnell, 12/04/2011 1:30 pm

Enjoy the Taste of Suffolk with Greene King

St Edmunds Real Beer & Food Festival at Greene King
Saturday 21st May & Sunday 22nd May
Greene King Brewery Gardens, Bury St Edmunds

The food & drink event of 2010 is back!

If you are interested in quality food and drink and want to sample a true taste of our fantastic region, you will love the “St Edmunds Real Beer & Food Festival”. Now in its second year, the Festival attracted over 4,000 visitors last summer, and organisers at Greene King are expecting even more success this May.

A wide range of top quality local food and drink producers will be joining the Suffolk brewer to promote their wares, offering opportunities to sample as well as to buy.  Among the delights will be locally produced smoked cheese, cured beef, jam, chutney, whisky, cider, premium sausages, seafood, ice cream, fudge – and of course, the finest real ales in the world!

There will also be live music in the gardens, food demonstrations, tutored tastings and beer master classes over the weekend. Families are welcome and we even have activities for the children, so get these dates in the diary!

Stand holders include Jimmy’s Farm, The English Whisky Company, Rodwell Farm homemade cheese, , Powters Newmarket Sausages, the Chilli Company, Yum Yum Tree Fudge, Pinneys Oysters of Orford and many more.

The ‘Festival’, which is being held in the Greene King brewery gardens in Bury St Edmunds takes place on the opening weekend of the Bury St Edmunds Festival, and is open Saturday 21st, 10am-6pm and Sunday 22nd May, 10am-5pm. Tickets are £3 each and are available from the Greene King Visitor Centre on 01284 714297, or from the Apex in Bury St Edmunds. Car parking is available for £2.

Join up to the ‘St Edmunds Beer’ Facebook group (www.facebook.com/stedmunds) for regular updates and announcements. For more information please email realbeerandfoodfestival@greeneking.co.uk.

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By Matt Furnell, 09/03/2011 5:03 pm

JOHN BARLEYCORN TURNS WINE INTO WATER

The John Barleycorn pub in Duxford near Cambridge raised £400 at their charity “Wine into Water” event.  The money raised will pay to drill a well and provide clean water for an African village by selling wine!

Bernard Lee, landlord of the Greene King pub said, “By offering a three course meal with wine for each course presented by local wine expert, Richard Shobbrook, we raised the amount needed to provide an African village with clean water.  All we did was sell the wine and we can now send the proceeds to WaterAid who do such work in Africa.  It’s an innovative way to raise funds for this great charity”.

The John Barleycorn is renowned for its fundraising, has raised £4,400 since they opened two years ago.  Charities that have benefitted have included Help for Heroes and Cancer Research.

ENDS

 Notes: WaterAid is an international non governmental organisation. Our mission is to transform lives by improving access to safe water, hygiene and sanitation in the world’s poorest communities.

PUB CONTACT: Bernard Lee, Tel: 01223 832699, www.johnbarleycorn.co.uk

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By Matt Furnell, 21/02/2011 3:26 pm

Local businesswoman Clare Hindle and food consultant husband Graham have great new plans for their first pub business, the Woolpack pub in Fornham St Martin. 

Graham who is a former chef and runs his own food retail consultancy has already created a traditional British menu sourcing supplies from around the area. The couple who are serious foodies say there is a shortage of pubs offering good quality food at affordable prices. Graham said “The Woolpack is a classic country pub with loads of charm and character. We want to offer our customers great British pub food and drink in a relaxed and inviting environment, sourcing everything from as near to the pub as possible.”

His wife and new business partner Clare, who already runs Copeland Interiors in Bury St Edmunds has used some of her creative skills to give the pub an initial redecoration but has bigger ideas creating boutique style bedrooms and transforming the exterior.

The Greene King pub currently has a large restaurant of 50 covers, a bar with pool table, a function room and a large garden for families to enjoy. On top of all of that the couple want to enhance their services to the local community by offering speciality food nights, business lunches and a village shop! Clare says “We have always dreamt of running a pub together and when the Woolpack became available we jumped at the chance! We are fortunate to have an amazing team on board including our manager Layla Waller who has lots of experience and exceptional enthusiasm for delivering a great customer experience. We want to make this a pub this village and the community can be proud of”.

Since taking over, the Woolpack has received shining reviews for the quality of their food, the ambience and warm and inviting service.  Speaking about the couple, business development manager for Greene King, Paul Devine said “Clare and Graham with their team have developed a winning formula.  They have the skills needed to run a successful pub and they’ve created a place for everyone.  With their ongoing plans over the next year this will be a village with a pub that has it all!”

ENDS

Press Contact: Elaine Beckett, PR & Communications Manager, Greene King Pub Partners, Tel: 07974 132844