More than 100 pubs in Coventry and Warwickshire may be up for sale in a huge national sell-off of traditional boozers.
Coombe is on the left, Hearsall is on the right
Pub company giant Punch Taverns plans to off load about 2,300 of its 5,300 UK venues – leaving a shadow hanging over the future of 103 pubs in the area.
At least 25 of these Punch pubs run by tenant landlords are in Coventry
This week Britain’s second-largest pub chain confirmed plans to hive off its more successful 800 managed pubs in to a separate company called Spirit.
That leaves the Punch Taverns saddled with £2.3billion of debt and hoping to off load around 450 of these remaining tenanted pubs annually for the next five years.
Sharon Bradley, who is a tenant landlady at the Punch-owned Coombe Abbey Inn in Craven Street, Chapelfields, said: “At the moment if your pub’s doing OK and you’re not on your backside you’re alright.
But what we’re going to find is that all the smaller drinking pubs will be sold.
“Trade is OK, it’s up and down. But I think it will end up with any small, local pubs like ours disappearing. It will all be food pubs and big pubs like the Maudsley Hotel and The Holyhead.”
An eighth of Britain’s licensed houses were owned by Punch Taverns including the Coach and Horses in Longford, the Manor House in Fillongley and the Whitnash Tavern in Leamington.
Shares in Punch had slumped by 95 per cent during the last four years amid mounting alarm it could default on its debts. The company has refused to reveal which of its pubs are up for sale.
Sharon runs the Coombe Abbey Inn with her boyfriend and 23-year-old son.
The mother-of-two’s tenancy is currently up for business transfer – meaning she has invited someone to buy out the remaining years on her lease – but she is in no rush to leave.
“The de-merger is for the company’s benefit,” she added.
“It means if they were to go bust the managed pub side of things will be OK. I assume that’s why they are splitting it.”
A Punch Taverns spokeswoman told the Telegraph: “Unfortunately we can’t disclose how many pubs we currently have for sale.
“Our focus is on securing the future of our pubs by focusing on a core estate of 3,000 high quality pubs in the long term.
"We’ve created a turnaround division of approximately 2,300 pubs. This division will focus on disposing of a number of pubs over the next five years, while working with our partners to drive trade.”
The Coombe wasn't built as a pub to begin with, it was two watchmaker's houses knocked into one. It still has the original topshops at the rear and no proper cellar underneath.
