Ian Payne, chairman of managed operator Stonegate Pub Company, has said that the group’s late-night division was performing “unbelievably well” and that it’s the Common Room concept was “going down a storm”.
In a week which new figures showed that the number of nightclubs in the UK has almost halved since 2005, Payne told M&C that the company’s late-night division, and especially its gay bars, is the strongest part of its business.
He said: “We are converting most of our Reflex and Flares sites to the Popworld format, which is doing phenomenally well. At the same time, The 2Brewers in Clapham has had some phenomenal weeks.”
The company has 18 The Common Rooms at present and will convert all of its Scream sites to the format over the next three to four years.
Payne said: “We are on site in Aberdeen and we have just approved the first Maclays investment which is the Braes in Dundee, which will be a Common Room. We will invest £320k on that site.”
He said that the group would soon commence moving the majority of the Scotland-based, 15-strong Maclay Inns estate it acquired earlier this year to its trading styles but not all will be “converted into our formats”.
He said: “We have to learn from them about putting more Scottish-style dishes on the menu. There will be a merging on styles.”
The group has so far expanded its new Yates format to five sites, after the success of the concept in Brighton and Colchester.
