Stonegate Group: Owners of chain venues Slug & Lettuce and Be At One considers selling over 1,000 boozers as it battles debt
Stonegate Group, the owners of Slug & Lettuce and Be At One, is in discussions to sell more than 1,000 boozers.
The company, which owns around 4,300 venues, is reportedly considering selling off some of the chain's best properties in a deal reportedly to be worth around £1 billion. It is believed that Stonegate remain in discussions with advisers at this time, according to an exclusive report by The Times.
Despite bringing in over £1.7 billion last year, the company has accrued debts of more than £3 billion over the past few years. Plans to sell 1,034 of Stonegate's pubs is being seen as an attempt to rescue the business from going under, following a previous failed bid to sell off venues in 2023.
Following the failed deal, the company managed to refinance 1,000 of its pubs with the debt firm Apollo in order to revitalise the business, but now is considering its options because a non-call period on the loan - which blocked sale of the pubs - is ending in January. The pubs being considered for sale are some of the chain’s best properties and it’s believed they could be valued at as much as £1billion.
A Stonegate spokesperson confirmed to The Sun that no venues are at risk of closure. For now, the pubs are continuing to operate as normal under the Stonegate brand.
Stonegate is owned by private equity firm TDR Capital, which is also in charge of Asda. Stonegate was formed in 2010 when TDR bought a package of 333 pubs from Mitchells & Butlers.
It became a big player in the pub trade over the decade that followed thanks to a string of acquisitions. In 2019, it completed a mega merger with rival company Ei – making it Britain’s biggest pub chain.
But the deal left the company with debt just months before the Covid pandemic forced pubs to shut. Since the end of the pandemic, pub chains have been weighed down with high interest rates, higher employee costs and higher food and energy bills.
Stonegate’s chief executive David McDowall said last year he was implementing a “transformation plan” to return the company to profit. The firm suffered a loss of £214million in 2024.
The strategy has involved converting hundreds of pubs run by Stonegate to tenanted and leased pubs which are rented out to and run by publicans. As part of this plan, the pub chain put 23 of its locations up for sale in September.
This is the full list of sites put up for sale:
- Dog & Duck, Walthamstow
- Fagins, Brookthorpe
- Feathers, Chalfont St Giles
- Frankland Arms, Washington
- Garden Bar, Hove
- Golden Ball, York
- Harbour Moon, West Looe
- Letters Inn, Tattenhall
- Malthouse, Timsbury
- Milehouse, Cross Heath
- Moorings, Loughborough
- Pax Inn, Thorp Arch
- Romantica, Sutton Coldfield
- Salthouse Hotel, Clevedon
- Seven Stars, Canterbury
- Star, Hampton Hill
- Wickham Arms, Brockley
- Windmill, Peterborough
A spokesperson for Stonegate said at the time: “As the UK’s largest pub company, we regularly review our portfolio for divestment opportunities. This package being marketed by Savills is a business-as-usual transaction.”