Oakman Inns has formed a new trading division, Ashmore Inns, which will be responsible for the management under contract of a number of carefully selected public houses, where the freeholds remain a part, for example, of family estates.
These are not typical Oakman Inns in their profile, and they all have a style and reputation which will be enhanced from the core competencies that Oakman’s management can bring to the venture.
Jack Ashmore, who started with Oakman Inns 10 years ago, has already made his first acquisition, The Pointer in Brill, which specialises in traditional British meats, game and fish. This week, he will add two further pubs to his portfolio - The Three Locks in Stoke Hammond and The White Swan in Twickenham. The Three Locks is a pretty, canal side pub built in the 1900s, and Fleurets arranged the entire deal.
Ashmore said,“Our new venture and the opportunity to manage this gorgeous canal side pub are very exciting. The transfer to our management control of The Three Locks has been seamless, and all the staff have transferred over via TUPE.
'The pub is in pretty good decorative order having been recently refurbished, so we can focus all our attention on familiarising the staff with the way we do things; begin training on our service standards; and focus on providing all our customers with a great Christmas party venue for both workmates and family.”
Peter Borg-Neal, CEO of Oakman Inns, said, “I think Ashmore Inns is going to play a very profitable role in the ever-developing Oakman story. Taking on pubs that we admire under sensible commercial terms on a managed contract basis ultimately improves the value of the property for the owners as we improve footfall and sales.
'I am particularly delighted we have acquired the Three Locks, as I only live ten minutes away so Jack will be seeing a great deal more of me than before! Tom Cormie at Fleurets has made the entire process very smooth, as always, and he knew us well enough to know that we would want to get involved.”