SDA, the private investment company controlled by Michael Cannon, who sold 107 Morrells of Oxford pubs to Greene King for £67m last week, has kept the four-outlet Que Pasa chain of bar/restaurants and 13 other pubs.
Observers suspect Cannon will now use his experience turning round the Fuddruckers hamburger chain in the United States, which he bought into in 1998 for £26.5m, to grow the Que Pasa brand, a South American/Mexican themed chameleon bar with daytime coffees and a late night dance venue offering.
In January Morrells hired Jason Auchinvole as operations manager for the brand, after buying eight Yates's Wine Lodges for an estimated £4m and announcing it planned to turn six of them into Que Pasas. It said at the time it intended to roll out the brand nationally.
Que Pasa was launched in Oxford, and has now been expanded to Grantham, Tunbridge Wells and Slough. In February Morrells was saying that sites in the pipeline included Leicester, Ilford, Solihull, and Wood Green and North Finchley in London.
Cannon's SDA will also keep, at least for the time being, the Morrells of Oxford Free Trade business and the Morrells ale brands, currently contract brewed by Thomas Hardy in Dorchester, after failing to interest Greene King in them. Tim Bridge, Greene King's chief executive, whose company paid an average £621,000 each for the Morrells pubs it is acquiring, said: "We did have a look at the ale brands and the free trade business but we preferred to buy the pubs. We weren't prepared to pay the price they wanted."
Analysts said it was impossible to work out how much profit Cannon had made during his four years as owner as he had sold the Morrell's brewery and invested £12m in the pub estate.
Observers suspect Cannon will now use his experience turning round the Fuddruckers hamburger chain in the United States, which he bought into in 1998 for £26.5m, to grow the Que Pasa brand, a South American/Mexican themed chameleon bar with daytime coffees and a late night dance venue offering.
In January Morrells hired Jason Auchinvole as operations manager for the brand, after buying eight Yates's Wine Lodges for an estimated £4m and announcing it planned to turn six of them into Que Pasas. It said at the time it intended to roll out the brand nationally.
Que Pasa was launched in Oxford, and has now been expanded to Grantham, Tunbridge Wells and Slough. In February Morrells was saying that sites in the pipeline included Leicester, Ilford, Solihull, and Wood Green and North Finchley in London.
Cannon's SDA will also keep, at least for the time being, the Morrells of Oxford Free Trade business and the Morrells ale brands, currently contract brewed by Thomas Hardy in Dorchester, after failing to interest Greene King in them. Tim Bridge, Greene King's chief executive, whose company paid an average £621,000 each for the Morrells pubs it is acquiring, said: "We did have a look at the ale brands and the free trade business but we preferred to buy the pubs. We weren't prepared to pay the price they wanted."
Analysts said it was impossible to work out how much profit Cannon had made during his four years as owner as he had sold the Morrell's brewery and invested £12m in the pub estate.
