Blind Tiger Inns is taking the leases on two new pubs with Star Pubs & Bars, bringing its total to 20 sites and doubling the size of its estate since 2017.
The North West community pub operator will open The Argyll & Sutherland at Eastham and the Towneley Arms Hotel in Longridge after undertaking joint refurbishments totalling £340,000.
MD Chris Tulloch tells MCA that alongside doubling its pub estate since it began, the company has managed to treble its turnover.
However he refuses to “chase numbers” when it comes to site expansion. “We’re very lucky in that Blind Tiger Inns has got no debt, no investors or shareholders.
“If there are opportunites there and myself and the team think that they’re right ones, then we’ll go for them but we’re never taking pubs just to make up the numbers”, he tells MCA.
The group has taken on two or three pubs each year since it started and will continue to invest heavily in refurbishing the estate on a “strict” five-year cycle. “That’s what works for us”, says Tulloch, as he shares that there are two more large scale refurbishments in the pipeline for this year.
Focus remains on investing in technology while retaining the community feel of its pubs. “We have the things you’d expect from a pub, but all of that is combined with the best of technology”, such as contactless payments on pool tables.
Tulloch says Blind Tiger will also continue to invest in exceptional outdoor spaces and strives to be market leading in this area, “I think a lot of people caught up with us because that’s what everybody had to do during Covid.”
“It was great as a catalyst for us to move forward and create above and beyond what we were already doing, really push ourselves to create new ways of reinventing beer gardens.”
Blind Tiger Inns also aims to diversify and is considering transforming larger retail sites into food halls or live music venues. It comes after the company recently branched out into running a mobile bars and events service.
Despite the cost of living crisis, Tulloch says the first half of the year has been its strongest yet with record turnover- “that’s off the back of record turnover last year in terms of like for likes.”
“But obviously cost is underneath, our energy has increased by over 200,000 in the past 12 months.”
“The increases from the brewery we’ve passed on to the customer- there’s not a lot left after that to try and chip away at that 200,000.”
“But we’d rather keep doing what we’re doing, not try to cut costs elsewhere and make sure we come out as the strong operator that we always are.”
