United Kingdom: West Cumbrian brewer Jennings announced on January 17 a GBP 5 million investment across the north of England. The Cockermouth-based company plans to expand its pub acquisition programme into Lancashire and West Yorkshire, according to News and Star. However John Houghton, Jennings’ pub operations director, said there will continue to be a strong commitment to Cumbria. “It is about carrying on the strategy that we’ve had for the past two to three years - to grow the number of pubs in the Jennings business.

“We now have 130 pubs in total and 40% of those are in Cumbria. The rest are in the north of England so Cumbria is clearly very important to us,” he said. In 2004, the brewer bought several new pubs in Cumbria, including the Queen’s Hotel at St Bees, the Herdwick at Penruddick and the Strickland Arms, near Penrith.

Mr Houghton said exactly where new pubs are acquired will depend on available sites across the whole of northern England. “We are interested in West Cumbria itself and will look at buying new pubs if the right sites come up,” he added. The company is also looking for new people who want to run Jennings pubs.

19 January, 2005