Arran Brewery, the Scottish brewer and bar operator, is on the search for sites UK-wide to expand its fledgling pub estate.
The company, which launched a share sale in November in a bid to raise up to £4.25m for expansion, wants to become a major player in the pub business according to managing director Gerald Michaluk.
He told M&C Report: “It all depends on how much money we raise – we might be a very big operator or we might be a very small one.
“We’re in negotiations with several pub owners at the moment and we’ve got one person whose job is to look for sites. We want to go where people drink real ale, so we want to go everywhere.”
Arran Brewery currently has two pubs, one at the new Loch Earn Brewery, Hotel and Visitor Centre, and another, the Punch-owned Pierhead Tavern on the Isle of Arran, which it saved from closure when it bought the lease in December. Through the share sale (shares are £80 each) the company plans to upgrade the Isle of Arran Brewery to increase production and efficiency, and complete construction of the Loch Earn Brewery, Hotel and Visitor Centre in St Fillans.
It also hopes to refurbish the former Rosebank Distillery in Falkirk, and to open a research and development centre on a five-acre site in Dreghorn, North Ayrshire.
