Brakspear renames managed estate Honeycomb Houses

Pub operator and brewer Brakspear is launching a new identity for its managed estate, now renamed Honeycomb Houses, while also planning to expand the division through acquisitions.

The Brakspear name will still appear on pub buildings, while the new Honeycomb Houses branding will appear on other exterior and interior signage, menus and uniforms.

“We’ve been running our managed pubs for a little while and we felt the need to consolidate them and give them a name to get behind,” Brakspear chief executive Tom Davies told The Caterer. “I wanted to give the business its own identity. We thought we had to give the guys a name but also a mantra – what do we stand for? What are we trying to do?”

The new mantra for the brand will be ‘Our House, Your Home’, establishing the kind of service the businesses offer.

At the same time, Brakspear has refocused the criteria for its managed estate and is looking for new pubs that meet the brief: larger sites in rural locations and market towns in the south-east and Cotswolds, with a strong food trade, event space and ideally bedrooms.

Davies said: “Numbers are less important to me than the quality of the asset. If we buy one or two a year, great, but we’re looking at quality freehold acquisitions, and sadly they don’t grow on trees – they’re difficult to find. It’s going to be opportunity-led. We’re in the market, we’ve got money to invest and it’s a case of finding the opportunities as and when they come."

In redefining the Honeycomb Houses positioning, Brakspear has identified three pubs that will transfer into its tenanted business: the Retreat in Staines, the Dog & Duck in Wokingham and the Golden Ball near Maidenhead. Tenants are being sought for all three pubs.

Brakspear retail marketing manager Jacqueline Fletcher said: “‘Our House, Your Home’ is a simple but powerful way to express what Honeycomb Houses is all about, to our teams and our guests.

“We encourage our team members to ‘treat colleagues as family, guests as friends and pubs like home’. If they host guests in the same way that they would treat friends at home, they’ll deliver the service we want at Honeycomb Houses: relaxed, attentive and personal to each guest, creating a ‘home from home’ atmosphere in our pubs.”

Davies added: “There are some big headwinds coming next year – we’re all concerned about staff and inflation, it’s going to be tough, but at the same time we’re a long-term business that focuses on the next 50 years, not just the short-term. As and when the right properties present themselves and we believe that we can turn them into really great quality assets for our business, then we have to look at acquiring them.

“We’re looking to acquire quality tenanted businesses as well. It’s still a part of the business we’re very proud of and we want to continue to invest in. Both sides of the business will receive investment, but there has been more opportunity on the managed side for acquisitions.”

Brakspear’s managed division was founded in 2013 with the opening of the Bull on Bell Street in Henley-on-Thames. The latest purchase, in March 2020, was the Egypt Mill, a pub restaurant with rooms and a weddings business near Stroud. The estate now numbers nine sites dotted across the Cotswolds and south-east.