Bosses put M&B back on the map

By SARAH BRIDGE FOR THE MAIL ON SUNDAY
Updated:

 

NO Coronation Street regular would be seen drinking anything but a Newton & Ridley beer. But not in the Midlands. There, generations have always celebrated with real-life Mitchells & Butlers.

Now pubs and hotels group Six Continents has decided to go back to its roots and resurrect the M&B name for its pubs division.

Mitchells & Butlers is, according to Six Continents, 'one of the great names in the history of licensed retailing'.

It will also be the largest pub operator in the country with more than 2,000 managed pubs, bars and restaurants, including well-known names such as Vintage Inns, All Bar One, Harvester, Browns and O'Neills.

The original Mitchells & Butlers was founded in 1898 by the merger of two Midlands family businesses, both owning breweries and pub estates.

More than half a century later, another merger created Bass, Mitchells & Butlers, one of the biggest companies in the sector.

The name was later shortened to Bass, but when the company sold its brewing division in 2000, the Bass name went with it.

Enter Six Continents, the new name dreamt up by two employees and which cost the company £375,000 in rebranding.

Less than two years later, the company's plan to split itself between pubs and hotels meant that a new - or old - name had to be found for the pubs division. The hotels side will keep the Six Continents name.

This time, reviving the name Mitchells & Butlers was the idea of chief executive Tim Clarke, and, according to the company, 'cost very little'.

Six Continents is expected to announce at its annual meeting on Thursday that it is going ahead with the demerger as planned, with documents released in the next few weeks.

But a number of potential trade and private equity buyers have been taking close interest, fuelling speculation that the business will be sold for up to £3 billion.

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