ADMIRAL TAVERNS ACQUIRES HAWTHORN

The Board of Admiral Taverns, the UK’s number one community pub group, is pleased to announce that it has reached an agreement to acquire Hawthorn, the Community Pub Company, from NewRiver REIT PLC (“NewRiver”). The nationwide portfolio of 674 pubs is comprised of a mixture of predominately tenanted, leased and operator managed sites across England, Wales and Scotland.

The acquisition is a continuation of Admiral’s growth strategy to expand its wet-led community pub portfolio and will take the Group’s estate to over 1,600 pubs.  It will be funded through debt provided by Admiral’s current lenders, together with capital provided by existing investor, Proprium Capital Partners.  

This latest acquisition builds on the Group’s successful track record of acquiring, integrating and developing sustainable tenanted pub businesses, underpinned by its award-winning and licensee-centric approach.

Commenting on the acquisition, Chris Jowsey, Chief Executive of Admiral Taverns said: 

“This is one of the biggest acquisitions by Admiral to date and delivers on our strategy to build our estate to 1,500 sustainable pubs. It is a really exciting step forward for the business and we remain committed to the supportive partnership model, which is highly regarded by licensees.

“Our wet-led, community focused, supportive culture is very much shared by Hawthorn and I’d like to take this opportunity to welcome our new licensees and colleagues to Admiral. The acquisition has allowed us to acquire an excellent portfolio of pubs which we look forward to developing through our award-winning and highly supportive approach.”

During the pandemic Admiral has consistently championed its community pubs, offering significant rent aid and reopening support as well as lobbying the government on key issues such as hospitality grants, reducing Business Rates and VAT, and economic support for the hospitality sector.