Chain Which Owns Two Chiswick Pubs Goes On Sale

Convivial London Pubs owns Crown & Anchor and Lamb Brewery

The Convivial London Pub chain, which owns the Crown & Anchor and the Lamb Brewery in Chiswick, has gone up for sale.

Convivial Pubs is on the market with specialist property advisor Christie and Co, for offers in excess of £16.9m. The sale is offered on a share or individual asset basis.

Staff at the two pubs in Chiswick have been told there is no threat to their jobs at present and the group is optimistic about the sale.

The Lamb Brewery (formerly the Barley Mow), a popular sports and live music venue in Chiswick, was valued at £2.8 million while the Crown & Anchor, which was recently renovated, was listed at £2 million.

The pubs owned by the Convivial group are:

The Mitre Hotel in Greenwich (offers in excess of £6m)
The Lamb Brewery and The Crown & Anchor in Chiswick (£2.8m; £2m)
The Clifton in St John’s Wood (£2.9m)
The Botanist Brewery, Kew, TW9 (£2.5m)
The Hansom Cab, Kensington (£700,000).

Two of the pubs- the Lamb Brewery and the Botanist, have micro-breweries and nearly all the pubs in the portfolio have Grade-II listed status.

A spokesman for Christie and Co. described it as “a unique investment opportunity".

“The pubs would ideally suit central London operators who can slot these non-branded assets into existing portfolios. Alternatively, regional pub companies seeking to take advantage of an ebullient London pub market, strong tourist pound and excellent year-round trading conditions, will potentially view these as trophy assets.

“Add to this the two micro-breweries — which as well as offering regional brewers a foothold in the capital, have the bonus of significant off-sales potential — and we have a rare opportunity indeed.”

Recent research by Christie and Co uncovered a 10 per cent increase in average sale prices for pubs in London in the year to July 2013 (compared to the same period ended July 2012) — placing London at the head of the recovery, as far as the pub sector is concerned.

Convivial London Pubs plc is a group of freehold pubs formed in 2004 as an Enterprise Investment Scheme backed company.

July 31, 2013