Tring based Oakman Inns Group to grow pub and restaurant estate by 25%

Multi-site pub and restaurant operator Oakman Group has secured a refinancing deal and has announced plan to secure its immediate future and increase the size of its estate by around 25%

In a trading update local Tring based Oakman Inns, which operates 36 venues across the UK, said it had its "strongest ever pipeline" of new sites lined up.

It is due to open two new pubs in the next two months, in both Buckingham and Tring, ahead of a further expansion into the Seafood restaurant market.

The Grand Junction Arms has undergone two expansive refits since the group first  purchased the pub from Punch Taverns group, during covid lockdown in March 2020.

To support its future growth Oakman Group has completed a massive £29m refinance of its position and freehold estate, with Cynergy Bank providing funding of £18m.

Steven Kenee, the chief investment officer at Oakman Group, said: "The transaction significantly reduces our cost of capital, simplifies our corporate structure, and further strengthens the foundations from which our ambitious plans for the group will grow."

The Group were seriously impacted during the covid crisis, and many locally thought the pub group would not survive.

Despite the impact of the Omicron variant on festive trade, sales for the 31 weeks to 6 February were £37.9m – a 74.3% growth on last year when pubs were forced to close and 28% growth on the same period in 2020.

Oakman Inns Group employs more than 1,400 people and has recently  launched a Chef Academy based at the nearby Woburn restaurant with rooms in an attempt to tackle well publicised ongoing staff shortages within the business, and indeed the catering sector, the project has been created to offer people the chance to retrain in a new career with a guaranteed catering job at the end of the course.

Oakman Inns Group opened its first pub locally in the three counties in Tring in 2007.