Brewer buys 10 pubs

FAMILY-owned brewer JW Lees and Co has bought 10 freehold pubs from Punch Taverns for an undisclosed sum.

The purchase of the six managed houses and four tenancies — none are in Oldham — takes the Middleton-based firm’s managed estate to 35 and tenanted estate to 138.

Managing director William Lees-Jones said: “We are delighted that JW Lees has been able to acquire these excellent pubs. They are all great pubs, fit well into our existing portfolio and we look forward to integrating them into our estate.

Mr Lees-Jones, who has said that over the past few years pub values had over-inflated because of the leveraged debt model used by the larger pubcos, said: “We have been keeping our powder dry for a number of years and this is the largest number of pubs that we have been able to acquire in one transaction for more than 100 years.”

The brewer’s return to a market which is showing considerable signs of stress in the recession — the British Beer and Pub Association says that 39 pubs close every week in the UK — indicates that there are now bargains to be picked up.

In the year to March 31, 2008, J W Lees made a pre-tax profit of £4.6 million on sales of £49.6 million.