Former Greene King boss Rooney Anand secures £200m to help UK pubs

LA investors swoop in to save the British pub: Former Greene King boss Rooney Anand secures £200million cash injection to help UK bars recover from pandemic – after landlords threw away 87 MILLION pints during lockdown

  • Former Greene King boss Rooney Anand secures £200 million for new venture  
  • The RedCat Pub Company will help ‘support the recovery of the sector’, he said
  • British pubs have poured around 87 million pints of beer away during pandemic 
  • The British Beer & Pub Association said waste equivalent of £331 million in sales 

Former Greene King boss Rooney Anand has secured £200 million from one of the world’s largest investment firms to launch a new venture, whilst the UK’s beleaguered pub sector battles to stay afloat.

Mr Anand, 54, who led the pub group as chief executive officer until 2019, has secured the mammoth cash injection from Los Angeles-based Oaktree for his new company which plans to buy up pubs across the UK.

The RedCat Pub Company will partner with licensees, publicans and entrepreneurs to help ‘support the recovery of the sector’, he said.

Former Greene King boss Rooney Anand, 54, (pictured) has secured £200 million from one of the world’s largest investment firms to launch a new venture

Rooney Anand, 54, was born in Delhi, India, and moved to Walsall, West Midlands, aged two.

His father, a surgeon, and mother, an anaesthetist, had hoped their son would follow them into medicine.

But after a brief stint in construction Mr Anand studied a Business Masters Degree and joined United Biscuits where he developed a knack for marketing. Various other marketing-type roles followed at Terry’s Confectionery and pudding maker Sara Lee.

When he moved to Greene King in 2001 as head of brewing, he admitted he’d barely heard of the company and had certainly never been to Bury St Edmunds, where the company is based.

But he soon settled in to life near Cambridge, and when he was made chief executive in 2004 wasted no time in growing the business, leading a £254million takeover of Scots rivals Belhaven just a year later.  

When he took over as CEO in 2004, Greene King had 1,998 pubs. As he left in 2019 it had over 2,800, with turnover quadrupled to £2.2billion.  

Despite his Sikh heritage, Mr Anand is said to enjoy a pint or three. His wife, with whom he has three children, is French.  

Pubs and bars across the country have been hammered by coronavirus restrictions, with all sites currently shut to customers amid the third national lockdown.

The company said it believes there will be more ‘pent-up demand and more people holidaying in the UK because of Brexit’ when current virus curbs ease.

RedCat is to start with a focus on buying pub sites in the East, South East and South of the UK.

Mr Anand, who will be RedCat’s executive chairman, said: ‘I’ve always been a strong believer in the great British pub.

‘It has survived the Blitz, the Great Plague and the Credit Crunch – always bouncing back and taking its rightful place at the heart of the community.

‘We want to partner with talented licensees and entrepreneurs to give them the support, capital and help they need to thrive.’

Mr Anand previously saw Greene King through the credit crunch and the smoking ban, which took a toll on the pub sector; his strategy in tough economic times has been to broaden the appeal of the pub, and to improve service and value for money.

Famed for investing in distressed firms, Oaktree has expanded to become one of the world’s most prominent asset managers and holds stakes in UK firms including Fitness First and Countrywide.  

The news comes as figures reveal pubs have been forced to throw away up to 87 million pints of beer in the UK since the start of the pandemic.

The British Beer & Pub Association said the waste was the equivalent of £331 million in sales, based on the average cost of a pint at £3.81.

Emma McClarkin, the association’s chief executive, warned there would be a ‘wave of closures’ and job losses in the sector unless the Government provides further financial support.

She has called for an extension to the VAT cut for the hospitality sector and a reduction to the UK’s ‘excessive’ beer duty – the tax on selling and producing beer.

Rob Lindsey landlord at the Talbot Tap House, Ripley, Derbyshire, locks his pub down and throws away old ale for New Years Eve after entering Tier 4 lockdown, December 31 2020

Pubs forced to throw away up to 87 million pints of beer in the UK

Pubs have been forced to throw away up to 87 million pints of beer in the UK since the start of the pandemic, an industry body has claimed.

The British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA) said the waste was the equivalent of £331 million in sales, based on the average cost of a pint at £3.81.

Emma McClarkin, the association’s chief executive, warned there would be a ‘wave of closures’ and job losses in the sector unless the Government provides further financial support.

She has called for an extension to the VAT cut for the hospitality sector and a reduction to the UK’s ‘excessive’ beer duty – the tax on selling and producing beer.

A couple walking past a closed pub in Camden, London, as the pub sector is hit hard by Covid lockdown measures 

Ms McClarkin said: ‘Our sector is in limbo. And at several points in the last 12 months, pubs and breweries have effectively had to pour their revenues down the drain.

‘We have no idea or clarity from Government on when we can reopen again.’

If pubs are told to stay closed beyond March, Ms McClarkin said further Government grants would be needed to support them.

‘Without this, neither pubs or brewers will be around to brew and serve beer when we can reopen’, she said.

Phil Cutter, co-owner of the Murderers pub on Timberhill in Norwich, estimated that he will have lost between £12,000 to £15,000 in stock by the time he can reopen.

Blinds cover the windows of a pub, temporarily closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, near Anfield stadium, Liverpool, January 17, 2021

Mr Cutter, 49, said: ‘We have lost about £500,000 in turnover at least. And with the money we have put in, it has cost me personally about £25,000 to £30,000, that’s probably the same for my business partner as well.’

He added: ‘We have got a little bit of money coming in from council grants, and obviously the money from the Government has helped, but it doesn’t go anywhere near enough to try and redress the money we have lost since March last year.’

Researchers suggested in January that bars and restaurants should stay shut until May, warning that reopening society too quickly could have a ‘disastrous’ effect.

Dr Marc Baguelin, from Imperial College London, who sits on the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling (SPI-M) which advises the Government, said the opening of the hospitality sector before May would lead to another ‘bump’ in transmission.

The BBPA said it carried out a survey of its members – which brew 90 per cent of UK beer – to estimate how much had been wasted since the start of the pandemic. 

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