Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries is once again looking for new sites for Pitcher & Piano, the bar chain it tried and failed to sell.
At one point in 2001 the chain looked set to go to Regent Inns. However, the terrorist attacks of September 11 that year made it impossible for Wolves to achieve the £60m sale price it had been looking for.
A year later it called in Mike Dowell, the former marketing director of the Whitbread Beer Company and managing director of Whitbread's Costa coffee bars, to revamp the Pitcher and Piano brand as the chain's managing director.
Now Dowell has revealed that Wolves has looked at several potential sites for a possible re-expansion of the chain, which has dropped to 28 units from 39 in 2001 after the sale of "marginal" outlets.
Wolves is in the middle of an "evolution" programme for the chain, called Project Darwin, which will see nine sites, including those in Birmingham, Richmond in Surrey and Bishopsgate, Fulham and Islington in London refurbished. The latest refurbished outlet, in Richmond, had a total of £350,000 spent on it.
o The Pitcher and Piano on School Lane, Didsbury is applying for planning permission to build a beer garden on its car park.
The garden, which is currently used as a delivery point, would provide seating for 60 people.
However, nearby residents are said to be outraged at the proposal, which they say will lead to ‘intolerable’ noise levels late at night.
