Liberation Group has completed the integration of Cirrus Inns into its Butcombe Pubs and Inns business and has reported an encouraging start to the new financial year.
The South of England and Channel Islands pub operator and brewer completed the combination with Cirrus Inns on 16th December, 2022.
It has been a good year on the brewing side, too, with Butcombe Original now a top ten UK cask beer, number two in the South West of England.
For the 52 weeks to 28th January, the average EBITDA per pub in the tenanted estate was £94,600 (£90,200 in the year to January 2020, the last comparable year). Own brewing volumes rose 21.5% versus the 2022 full year.
“I’m delighted and really impressed with the progress we have made since Christmas,” said Jonathan Lawson, chief executive of Liberation Group. “Our collective teams have worked incredibly quickly and effectively. We are now in the position where all 22 of the new pubs and inns are fully integrated into our systems, processes, and infrastructure, and trading under the Butcombe brand.
“We have launched our award-winning food and drinks offerings, which have been really well received by our teams and customers. Brand new websites are now in place, and customers are now able to take advantage of our fantastic loyalty club.
“Part of the logic behind the deal was to leverage the benefits of scale that the larger group would bring, and we have already been able to do this across food and drink, to the benefit of the entire group, in both the UK and Channel Islands.
“This also includes our accommodation, where we now have over 400 rooms, compared to under 100 in 2020. We are now able to operate at a different level in terms of marketing appeal, and our higher room sales has an additional and positive impact on our food and drink sales and margin mix.”
He added: “We have only had to add a small incremental overhead to our business to integrate the new pubs into the larger group, which has enabled us to achieve the targeted overhead savings from the combined business.
“Most importantly, the integration has seen us welcome some fantastic new team members to our team, and we have been incredibly encouraged by the quality and calibre of the new chefs, managers, and team members applying to join us and play a part in our exciting next stage of growth.”
