Friday 7 October 2011

Brains buys coffee chain

Press release from SA Brain:

BRAINS BUYS AWARD WINNING COFFEE CHAIN

Wales’ number one brewing and hospitality business S.A Brain and Co Ltd, have announced the purchase of Coffee#1 Limited for an undisclosed consideration. Coffee#1 currently comprises 15 high street coffee stores spread throughout South Wales and the South West.

Brains’ Chief Executive Scott Waddington commented ‘we are delighted to have completed the purchase of Coffee#1. We are selling an increased volume of coffee through our pub estate and believe we are well placed to continue the fantastic success of Coffee#1 with our complementary hospitality skills to a well-established, highly-regarded and award-winning retail operation. We have been very impressed with the excellent standards of product quality and service and were attracted to the significant development potential for Coffee#1 going forward.

‘The coffee market has continued to grow strongly despite the recent difficult economic conditions. We believe that with the continuing changes in consumer eating and drinking habits, this acquisition presents an obvious opportunity for our business in the future and is complimentary to the continued development of our pub business.’

James Shapland, Managing Director of Coffee#1, added ‘we are delighted that Coffee#1 has become part of the Brains family and are confident that under their control the business will go from strength to strength. I would like to thank all our staff for their hard work and help in growing Coffee#1 into the well-loved and highly successful business it is today, and wish them every success in the future’.

The shareholders of Coffee#1 were advised by PwC. Gary Partridge from PwC’s Deal Team commented ‘This deal demonstrates that the local M&A market is open for entrepreneurial-backed businesses such as Coffee#1’. Coffee#1 is a strong brand and leading regional coffee chain, and PwC is delighted to have advised James and the shareholders on this transaction’.

2 comments:

Curmudgeon said...

Hmm, unless they're going to convert the coffee shops into bars, is this perhaps going to be a distraction from their core business? The track record of brewers diversifying into other business areas is not a good one, and arguably they would be better off "sticking to the knitting".

Brew Wales said...

Brains already sell Costa coffee in a lot of their pubs so it could be seen as merely an extension of what is already a profitable part of the business. Also applying for an alcohol license in these new outlets would not be too difficult as they already have planning permission for food use. Though the Coffee1# venues I have seen are a bit small for pub conversion.

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