Former BII Licensee of the Year Darran Lingley is looking for his fourth Essex pub.
After earning the accolade in 2011 with his first venture, the Five Bells at Colne Engaine, Lingley has successfully turned around the Lion in Earls Colne and the Griffin in Halstead. “We have a couple more opportunities in the pipeline, and we want to get to four by the end of this year,” he said. “There is a lot available, and we’d expect the opportunities to increase as the big guys continue to dump the bottom end of their estates.
“The hardest part, though, is funding. The banks are still reluctant to lend. Pubs are a risk for them and the parameters are really hard. There’s no cheap money for us and the supermarkets are buying the bigger ones.”
Trading is “up and down”, Lingley added, “but reasonable”. “Some guys are doing extremely well, and we’re helped by having a diverse estate with different income streams. When one pub is down the others are up.”
While the newly refurbished Five Bells is strongly community based, the Lion is “high-end gastro” with an annual turnover that’s shot from zero to £500,000, and the Griffin “a back-street gem”. “It’s got limited food, and it’s small, but we sell 2,000 pints a week there.” Each site now has a wine shop.
The next pub, he said, would ideally slot in between the Five Bells and Lion in the market with a food offer targeting families.
Lingley has the HQ infrastructure to go to a fifth pub. “We certainly haven’t reached out limit but we’ll have to see how it goes.”
