Award-winning multi-site pub company TLC Inns has bought its fifth venue. The company, headed by Steve Haslam and Jo Drain, has bought the Catherine Wheel, Albury, near Ware, Hertfordshire, a Punch freehold, off an asking price of £600,000.
TLC Inns is expecting to invest between £150,000 and £200,000 and re-open the pub in early July.
The pub sits in the wealthy Pelhams area of Hertfordshire and was re-built in 2007 after a fire had razed it to the ground.
The venue is TLC’s second freehold - it acquired the Henny Swan in Great Henny, one mile south of Sudbury, Suffolk, from Punch Taverns last year.
TLC Inns also runs three Enterprise Inns sites - the White Horse in Ramsden Heath, the Cutter, in Ely, and the Windmill Tavern, in Cherry Orton Road, Orton Waterville, Peterborough.
Haslam said: “The menu will sit midway between the mainstream White Horse menu and the Henny Swan - top-end of the middle market. “It’s also a big thanks to Barclays, which turned this whole deal around in 12 days.”
TLC Inns has won multiple awards at the Great British Pub Awards - and Haslam won Best Individual in last year’s MA200 Awards for multi-site retailers. The Henny Swan was also a short-listed finalist in this year M&C Report Retailer’s Retailer awards.
