Gillian

This pub is TINY. Enterprise, the PubCo, wanted 90K initially on the assumption that the pub was taking 20K a week. The interior is three small interconnected rooms, each about the size of a modestly sized domestic bathroom. The idea that a place this size could do 20K a week, even in the shadow of Old Bailey and the Appeal Courts, and it being rammed twelve hours a day with loaded silks, is preposterous.

 

Below is Article from Morning Advertiser.

 

An award-winning lessee has won in arbitration after her pubco tried to double her rent.

 

Enterprise Inns proposed increasing rent at the Seven Stars, in Holborn, London, from £39,500 to £79,975.

 

Lessee Jenny Silver – known as Roxy Beaujolais – was advised by consultant Ken Newton that a more realistic rent for the free-of-tie pub would be between £50,000 and £55,000.

 

Newton made an offer of £50,500, which was rejected by Enterprise – the pubco proposed £59,500.

 

After further negotiations failed, an arbitrator was appointed and settled on £52,500.

 

Newton argued that “Roxy” was the key to success at the “tiny” pub.

 

The Seven Stars has a trading space of less than 500sq ft and is located in an area where trade is traditionally quiet at weekends.

 

Silver and husband Nathan have spent about £100,000

 

on the interior since taking over the 400-year-old listed pub in 2001.

 

They increased the number of days it opens from five to seven, revamped its food offer and increased covers from four to 20.

 

Since 2001, it has been named Pub of the Year by Time Out and London’s Best Dining Pub by the Good Pub Guide.

 

Newton said: “The pub is doing well as a result of Roxy’s efforts. There were only five years left on the lease and Enterprise wanted to double the rent, because it has apparently been under-trading all these years. That is unacceptable.”

 

Roxy was “horrified” by the proposed rent hike.

 

She said: “It would have been very difficult to trade with that rent. There would have been no profit.”

 

Enterprise was ordered to pay costs of about £10,000, plus Newton’s expenses of £2,000.

 

This is because Silver’s final offer of £52,050 was nearer the arbitrator’s ruling than Enterprise’s final proposal of £55,000.

 

Enterprise not unhappy

 

Enterprise chief operating officer Simon Townsend said: “We are not unhappy with the result.

 

“There has been a fair process, leading to a fair decision. We originally over-estimated trade in what is a free-of-tie house, which meant we did not have ‘line of sight’. So, unsurprisingly, our first offer was rejected.

 

“But after careful consideration and exchange of information with the lessee, we were able to take a more informed decision, and we’re happy with this result.”

 

 

 

Done