A strategic acquisition of a pub portfolio from Inntrepreneur
The Unique Pub Company owned a tenanted UK pub portfolio, which it acquired from Inntrepreneur, another of Terra Firma’s pub businesses, in March 1999. The portfolio consisted of more than 2,600 tenanted pubs across the UK, the vast majority of which were freehold properties.
The Unique pubs formed the portion of the Inntrepreneur portfolio unaffected by litigation or where litigation affecting the ongoing operation of the pubs had been resolved. As a newly-formed business, Unique was in need of a completely new strategy and growth plan, as well as a new management team.
Unique created a new supplier to the tenanted pubs, Supplyline, which professionalised the logistics and procurement capabilities of the group. Through Supplyline, Unique developed a new beer supply arrangement under which lessees were allowed to buy their beer from multiple suppliers, rather than from a sole supplier as previously.
Unique came to be recognised as one of the UK’s top performing pub portfolios, with beer volume performance above trend, largely as a result of the company’s success in recovering volume previously lost to third-party beer suppliers.
The pub portfolio expanded over time, through both selective acquisitions to take advantage of economies of scale and the continuing purchase of pubs from Inntrepreneur, as litigation issues were resolved. At exit, Unique owned approximately 3,200 pubs.
Unique was sold along with Voyager, another Terra Firma pub group, to a consortium of trade and financial buyers in March 2002.