Liberation Group, the leading privately owned, premium pub operator and brewing business, today announces plans to rebrand to Butcombe Group (‘the Group’) to align with its strategic priorities. Butcombe Group will be the new corporate identity with the existing operating brands remaining the same – Butcombe Pubs & Inns, Butcombe Brewing Co, Butcombe Boutique Inns, Liberation Pubs & Bars and Liberation Brewing Co.
Over the last seven years, Butcombe Group has expanded significantly through organic growth and strategic acquisitions from Brains, Wadworth and Cirrus Inns. Led by its market leading food and drink offering, the expansion and development of the pub estate has been focused on the South of England. This area now represents the Group’s largest concentration of pubs. The Group’s accommodation offer has continued to develop, growing to over 400 available rooms, with plans to increase this to over 700 within the existing estate. This year has also seen the successful launch of the Group’s premium room offering – Butcombe Boutique Inns.
During the same period, the Group’s Butcombe Brewing and Drinks business has also continued to grow alongside its packaging, distribution and free trade business. Butcombe Original has recently overtaken Doombar as the South West’s number one selling cask ale and Top 10 UK-wide, whilst Tall Tales Pale Ale is one of the fastest growing keg ales in the South of England.
Looking forward, these three strategic priorities – Butcombe Pubs & Inns managed estate, Butcombe Brewing Co and Butcombe Boutique Inns will be the Group’s main drivers of growth. Rebranding to Butcombe Group creates cohesion between these three sub brands and champions a name that has become synonymous with award-winning beer, quality accommodation and a market leading premium food and drink offering.
The Group’s Channel Islands operations remain a critical part of the Group and will continue to operate and grow under the Liberation brands.
Jonathan Lawson, Chief Executive of Butcombe Group, commented: “The Butcombe brand has quickly established itself as a leader in the premium pubs and drinks business. Following a period of successful expansion, it is now the largest part of our business and the area where the majority of our growth is likely to come from. Adopting Butcombe as our corporate brand is the logical next step and will support our exciting plans for future development. The Channel Islands will continue to remain an important part of our business and growth plans, operating unchanged under the Liberation brands.”
He added in connection with Christmas Trade: “Christmas bookings have been incredibly strong for some time, with a double-digit growth against last year’s performance. Interestingly, the time of day showing the strongest bookings growth is the morning, which points to growing demand for brunches and lower alcohol occasions. We have also seen a real move to celebrate Christmas out of the home, with bookings on Christmas day up significantly.”
“Despite recent storms and fragile consumer confidence, we remain encouraged by trading in the second half overall which is running slightly ahead of the H1 like for like sales growth of 6.4%. We have been particularly heartened by the performance in our London pubs, where the investment in our sites and offer has been really well received by our customers and we have driven double digit growth in London for the last 12 weeks. We have strong plans for the new financial year which we approach with confidence, despite the deeply unhelpful budget from the UK government, which we see as being inflationary and contrary to their much-vaunted support for business.”
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