Faucet Inn founder Stephen Cox has acquired craft beer brands Fourpure and Magic Rock from Australian brewery group Lion.
The sale includes the breweries and taprooms in London, Huddersfield and Holmfirth and Little Creatures craft beer hospitality venue in Kings Cross, London.
The deal completes after a strategy review by Kirin-owned Lion, which announced it was “reviewing its options” for its UK division, Little World Beverages, in January 2022.
The craft beer brands will come under Cox’s newly incorporated Odyssey Inns, putting them back into independent UK ownership.
Lion made its debut in the UK in July 2018, when it bought up Fourpure for an undisclosed sum, followed by the acquisition of Magic Rock in 2019.
The global beverage company will focus its investment towards its businesses in Australia, New Zealand and the United States.
Stephen Cox said: “This is an incredible opportunity to take two exceptional brands, Fourpure and Magic Rock, to the next level. Combined with an excellent hospitality proposition, fantastic people and state of the art breweries, we really have the platform to do great things. We’re excited to get started and get to know the team. We bring bags of energy and enthusiasm, entrepreneurial spirit and strong industry experience, and we hope to bring joy to many more customers with these great beers.”
Cox has more than 20 years of experience in the world of pubs and brewing.
He co-founded Devon’s Utopian Brewing, and is listed as a director or Iconic Pubs and Watermill Pub Company.
He founded the Faucet Inn pub company in 2001, growing it to around 20 sites, before it entered into administration in 2018.
He bought back the business and assets back under his Golden Brick Pubs and Freshwater Pub Co vehicles, though these have since been liquidated.
Faucet operated all-day Scandinavian concept KuPP, which went into administration in 2018 with liabilities of £5m.
He was also behind the Neighbourhood and Babel bar concepts.
