Star Pubs and Bars to invest £14.2m in its ‘Just Add Talent’ pubs
Star Pubs and Bars has announced it is to invest £14.2m on its ‘Just Add Talent’ manager operated pubs in 2019, and will increase the number of pubs to 150 by the end of 2019.
Over £12m is to be spent converting pubs to meet the quality and criteria needed for a managed operated style of business which includes an average of £30,000 on kitchen equipment and epos systems. As much as £1.2m is earmarked for upgrading existing ‘Just Add Talent’ sites and £1m for pub gardens.
The investment comes following a £3.5m spend on 87 former Falcon pubs in the last quarter of 2018. The investment included the installation of Smart Dispense cellar equipment to ensure consistent beer and cider quality, coffee machines and energy efficiency measures such as LED lighting and insulation.
Lawson Mountstevens, managing director at Star Bars and Pubs, said: “We’re committed to building a strong managed operator pub model within our estate, which we see as hugely beneficial to our core leased and tenanted business.
“We know that our licensees want more help on saving costs and driving sales. Our JAT model helps us do this by trialling new initiatives, such as Heineken 0.0 on Blade, and improving deals with our suppliers. It also gives our Business Development Managers more detailed insight into daily pub operations, which helps to improve the business building support they provide leased operators.”
He added: “We are a predominately leased and tenanted business, and it is our intention to remain so. Our ambition is to Build Britain’s Best Pub Company and within that for JAT to be the preferred managed operator agreement. This investment helps us to achieve that.”
