Epic Pub Company, the venture launched by a group of former Peach Pub executives, has secured its first site.
The company has acquired the freehold of The Golden Ball in the village of Pinkneys Green, near Maidenhead, for £1.1m.
Epic is headed up by Andrew Coath, who was a managing partner at Peach Pubs until January, as managing director, with Jonathan Taylor – who briefly worked as cluster general manager at Oakman Inns after leaving Peach in February – as group operations director. Mark Austin, who was senior head chef at Peach until March, is group chef director.
When the company was first unveiled earlier this year it announced it would seek £4.25m in EIS-qualifying shares to fund the acquisition and refurbishment of four freehold pubs in the south east, with the aim of repositioning them so that ultimately 60% of total revenue comes from food sales.
Coath said: “We are very pleased to get this venture off the ground. There are a lot of food and drink offers in the Maidenhead area but we are bringing something different to the market and we will be serving quality food in a stand-out environment.”
The sale was handled by Tim Widdows of Christie + Co’s Reading office. He said: “Typical of the transactional marketplace in freehold pubs at the moment, the sale of The Golden Ball generated significant interest, particularly as it offered new owners the opportunity to seamlessly take over an already successful business. We would like to congratulate Epic Pubs on this excellent acquisition and we wish them every success in the future.”
