White Brasseries, the 15-strong pub group owned by Brasserie Bar Co, is to make its debut in Cambridgeshire, MCA understands.
The Mark Derry-led group, which recently secured a new £20m funding facility from bank OakNorth, is understood to have secured The Boot in Histon, a Punch pub, for an opening later this year.
The sister concept to Brasserie Blanc recently re-opened another Punch site, the Black Horse in Reigate, Surrey.
It is understood to be in talks on further sites for openings later this year.
Basserie Bar Co, 36-strong group, is to use the new finance a roll-out of 24 new sites and employ a further 700 staff by 2022.
It currently operates 15 White Brasserie pub sites and 21 Brasserie Blanc restaurants, with the latest restaurant recently opening in Fulham Reach.
Derry said: “Every high street is getting fuller and fuller of ever more interesting and good things. So the last thing I want to do is plonk more stuff down on the high street. You can’t build another pub in Oxshott [in Surrey], the kind of locations we have. As long as you don’t make a mess of it, there’s no reason why it can’t be sustainable.
“We don’t follow fashions. We like stuff that won’t go pear-shaped at the drop of a hat. In the broader sector, unless you’ve got a property strategy you’ve got a problem. Pubs offer us an avenue into more remote locations. It’s an underinvested sector with a sad 20-year history. We can put our people and money to work to improve interesting and fun places.”
The company typically will invest £1m in a pub, which helps to explain why it is still loss-making despite growing sales.
To date, the group has been backed by equity investment from private equity firm, Core Capital Partners LLP, and debt provided by ESO Capital in 2014, which enabled it to rebrand and refurbish the Brasserie Blanc restaurants, and expand the White Brasserie brand.
Following the rebrand, the business revealed an increase in turnover from £37m to £41m in 2016.
Earlier this year, the group announced plans to open restaurants in hotels with the first one having opened this month at the Bournemouth Highcliff Marriott Hotel.
