Newly established Innovation Pubs is targeting London for its next acquisitions as the group wants to build an estate of eight sites in the next two years, M&C has learnt.
Anthony Mitchell, who founded Innovation with Edward Willson, said the group has raised finance through a private equity firm with an exit strategy in five to eight years after establishing the brand and the sites.
The duo is looking at a leasehold and two freehold London premises with a view to acquiring all three in “premium postcodes”.
The company was founded last month with a double acquisition in High Wycombe of two Enterprise sites – The Bootlegger and The Sausage Tree.
Mitchell said the pubs, which are located within a short walk of each other, demonstrate the two elements he wants to bring to the estate.
The estate will comprise sites with strong food offering and specialty craft beers including a beer filtration system that is not used anywhere else in the UK.
“What I want to do in the London sites is put the elements together; the drinking and dining elements are very different but what I want in the other sites is to merge the whole thing in one unit.
Although Mitchell is keen to bring the Innovation concept to London, he said there “we are quite flexible” and is considering a site in Birmingham.
Mitchell said: “Eight is a good size for managing the infrastructure and there would then be an exit strategy after five years.”
