North West pub company, Imagine Inns has increased its estate to four pubs. Its latest additions are The Feildens Arms at Mellor Brook and The Railway at Bromley Cross, where the company is breaking ground on a £400k investment with Star Pubs & Bars this week.
All Imagine Inns’ sites are on five-year rolling leases with Star Pubs & Bars. The Railway Inn is Imagine Inns’ first major refurbishment and its first joint investment with Star.
The project will transform The Railway into a great pub serving outstanding food and drink. A kitchen extension will enable the pub to serve freshly prepared food all day, starting with a full English breakfast at 9am.
Like the other Imagine Inns’ sites, The Railway will have a dedicated vegan menu, as well as a main menu of hearty pub favorites, grilled meats – sourced from individual farms across Lancashire and Cumbria – and fish. A 50/50 wet/dry sales mix is anticipated in line with those at Imagine Inns’ other sites.
The pub will also emphasise cask ales with six on tap, including local beers through Star Pubs & Bars’ SIBA partnership.
Imagine Inns specialises in revitalising closed or tired pubs in the North West. The company is interested in further organic growth focused on rural and village pubs in the region.
Award-winning chef and Imagine Inns director, Mike Hales (pictured) said, “I like to look at the potential in a pub and imagine what it could become – hence the company name. We’re in no rush to expand. For us it’s all about finding the right opportunity, and each new pub we lease has to work before we move on to the next.
'To date, we’ve trebled trade at every business, and we anticipate further substantial growth at all of them.”
For now, the company is committed to leaseholds. Hales added, “Leaseholds are a great way of getting a group of pubs off the ground. I’m not afraid to invest – you have to be willing to make bold moves to reap the rewards – but it’s reassuring to be doing it in partnership on such a big scheme.
'The plans for The Railway are stunning, and it’s good to work with a flexible partner who is receptive to my vision and ideas.”
Adds David Pritchard, Star Pubs & Bars North West regional operations director, said, “We’re all about working in partnership with entrepreneurial licensees to deliver great pubs, and we’re excited to be partnering with Mike again. Mike took his first pub with us in November 2016.
'It’s an amazing achievement to have built up a group of such strong businesses in such a short space of time. Each one delivers excellence across the board, has its own individual feel and is focused on the needs of its community.”
