Six Continents Retail is to change its name to one of the Midlands' most famous vanished brewing groups, Mitchells & Butlers, when the demerger from the SixC hotel business is completed in April.
<1>Meanwhile predators are lurking to pounce on the pubs group, which runs 2,100 outlets, with Hugh Osmond, founder of Punch Taverns, said to be among potential bidders who have registered interest with Schroder Salomon Smith Barney, the investment bank handling the break-up.
Ironically, the former Mitchells & Butlers brewery at Cape Hill,. Birmingham closed late last year, and Six CR, which operates the All Bar One, O'Neills and Harvester brands, among others, moved its offices out to new premises in the city.
The name goes back to 1898 and the merger of Henry Mitchell & Co Ltd of Cape Hill and Butler's Crown Brewery Ltd. Both concerns had their roots in Birmingham own-brew pubs, Henry Mitchell at the Crown, Smethwick in the 1860s, William Butler at the Crown, Broad Street in the 1870s. In 1961 Mitchells & Butlers, then one of the two biggest brewers in the Midlands, merged with Bass, which went on to merge with Charrington of London in 1967 to form the UK's biggest brewing and pubs group.
It is understood that a return to the Bass name was the favoured option, but Interbrew, which now owns the name, was reluctant to licence its use. However, the group has managed to gain use of the Mitchells & Butlers name, despite M&B continuing as a regional beer brand under Coors, which acquired much of the old Bass brewing operation in 2002.
There is a hope among senior management that Mitchells & Butlers may gain the same cache in pubs and restaurants as Marks & Spencer has won in retail. The original company had a reputation for building some of the finest pubs in the Midlands in the years before the First and Second World Wars. Tim Clarke, currently chief executive of Six Continents, who will be chief executive of M&B after the break-up, said: "Mitchells & Butlers led the way through much of the 20th century in creating pubs with innovative levels of amenity and service and wide social appeal."
The renaming of the estate will be confirmed this week at the annual shareholders' meeting in London. SixC will post documents detailing the demerger shortly after the meeting.
<1>Meanwhile predators are lurking to pounce on the pubs group, which runs 2,100 outlets, with Hugh Osmond, founder of Punch Taverns, said to be among potential bidders who have registered interest with Schroder Salomon Smith Barney, the investment bank handling the break-up.
Ironically, the former Mitchells & Butlers brewery at Cape Hill,. Birmingham closed late last year, and Six CR, which operates the All Bar One, O'Neills and Harvester brands, among others, moved its offices out to new premises in the city.
The name goes back to 1898 and the merger of Henry Mitchell & Co Ltd of Cape Hill and Butler's Crown Brewery Ltd. Both concerns had their roots in Birmingham own-brew pubs, Henry Mitchell at the Crown, Smethwick in the 1860s, William Butler at the Crown, Broad Street in the 1870s. In 1961 Mitchells & Butlers, then one of the two biggest brewers in the Midlands, merged with Bass, which went on to merge with Charrington of London in 1967 to form the UK's biggest brewing and pubs group.
It is understood that a return to the Bass name was the favoured option, but Interbrew, which now owns the name, was reluctant to licence its use. However, the group has managed to gain use of the Mitchells & Butlers name, despite M&B continuing as a regional beer brand under Coors, which acquired much of the old Bass brewing operation in 2002.
There is a hope among senior management that Mitchells & Butlers may gain the same cache in pubs and restaurants as Marks & Spencer has won in retail. The original company had a reputation for building some of the finest pubs in the Midlands in the years before the First and Second World Wars. Tim Clarke, currently chief executive of Six Continents, who will be chief executive of M&B after the break-up, said: "Mitchells & Butlers led the way through much of the 20th century in creating pubs with innovative levels of amenity and service and wide social appeal."
The renaming of the estate will be confirmed this week at the annual shareholders' meeting in London. SixC will post documents detailing the demerger shortly after the meeting.
