Hive and Nest Pub Franchise Agreements Are Coming To Scotland
I'm in Scotland - can I run a Greene King franchise pub?
Absolutely! We already have a host of lease and tenanted publicans running our Belhaven pubs in Scotland, and new for 2025, franchise opportunities are now available – offering experienced pub/hospitality managers the chance to step up and run your own pub.
What’s the relationship between Belhaven and Greene King?
Greene King purchased Belhaven in 2005 and continues to trade under the Belhaven brand in Scotland. This is due to the brands unrivalled recognition and superb reputation built up over 300 years of brewing.
And if you are a pub or hospitality manager in Scotland who is looking to run their own business, but is put off by the perceived high cost of entry, running costs and the associated risk, we might just have the franchise agreement solution for you…
What’s a franchise agreement?
You may have heard of a managed operator or self-employed manager agreement before, that’s essentially the same thing as a franchise agreement.
For a low-entry cost (between £3,000-£5,000), you will be given the keys to a fully refurbished pub that’s ready to trade.
That’s right, you read that correctly – a fully refurbished pub! We are investing in every pub we market for franchise across the UK and that includes all of our Scottish pubs.
And not only that but the other benefits to you as a franchisee are:
- No rent payable
- Low risk / low entry cost
- A guaranteed income for our Hive Pubs model – to help support with the staffing costs – there is no need for this with Nest as the staffing costs are much lower due to the simple food offering.
- The majority of bills and property maintenance taken care
- A percentage of the Net Weekly Turnover (variable by pub)
- Quarterly percentage of business profits (variable by pub)
- Annual bonus for meeting compliance audits.
- Living accommodation provided (and if there’s no private accommodation available, you’ll receive an increased guaranteed income of £25,200 per year for Hive pubs and a guaranteed income of £5,200 per year for Nest pubs.)
What’s Hive? What’s Nest? And what are the differences?
As of 2025, Belhaven now have two proven franchise models to choose from…
Hive Pubs
Already established in England and launching in Scotland in 2025. Hive pubs are community focused, with a full food and drink offering and plenty of in pub entertainment. With their large, well invested gardens and outdoor spaces, Hive pubs are local pubs that become the social hub of a community.
Hive pubs require a low ingoing cost of £5,000, but once that’s paid, you can be guaranteed a minimum income of £20,000 per annum (increasing to £25,200 where there is no accommodation available), but there’s no ceiling! How much you earn is down to you, your team and your customer experience.
Nest Pubs
Also launching in Scotland 2025, these wet-led pubs are typically located in busy urban locations and communities, providing great value and regular sport and entertainment. Each pub has Sky Sports and TNT Sports (covered by Belhaven), as well as a simple pizza food offering, so you can keep costs to a minimum without the need for kitchen staff.
Because this makes such a significant reduction to your overheads, we don’t offer a guaranteed income with Nest Pubs (the exception being we do offer £5,200 where no accommodation is available within the pub), however, the ingoing cost is lower than Hive at just £3,000.
Sounds great – am I what you’re looking for?
The perfect franchisee will…
- Have previous experience within hospitality or pub management. You’ll already know what it takes to run a successful pub and be ready to take the next step up in your career
- Be ambitious and entrepreneurial – it will be your pub, and you’ll need to demonstrate your business acumen on a daily basis. Motivating sales, keeping a tight control on costs and marketing the pub will all contribute to driving profitability.
- Be a go-getter that delivers great customer experiences. No pub can survive without loyal customers so someone who is a real people person is essential.
- Want to make your mark on the local community. A warm, welcoming pub is one that will bring the community together, you’ll need to be at the heart of it!
Count me in, what’s the next step?
If that sounds like you, we’d love to hear from you. We already have sites secured for Nest and Hive openings in 2025 across Scotland and our Business Development Manager, Alasdair Lindsay, is working to find the perfect franchisee to run these key locations.
Please give us a call on 01284 843200 or use our Live Chat functionality to discuss more!