Saltire Taverns, fresh from selling its Frankenstein outlets, has stepped in to buy the Hudson Hotel and Bacaro nightclub in Edinburgh, from administrators KPMG, after former owners Festival Inns went into administration last week. Saltire also own Le Monde, which is situated on George Street.
Other outlets that have also been sold, this time to G1, include The Three Sisters, Biddy Mulligan’s, the Bank Hotel and the Murrayfield Hotel. The deal was reputedly worth £30m.
Festival Inns, part of the Festival Group, which included ScotBet, which was also sold last week, was run by Kenny Waugh, who along with Saltire Taverns founder Billy Lowe, originally made his fortune when the two (who are cousins) sold their original pub group, Thistle Inns to Scottish Brewers for around £24m.
But now Kenny is teaming up with G1, and will head up a new company, EH1 Ltd. He will remain responsible for managing Festival’s original outlets in Edinburgh. He now becomes Chairman of EH1 and also becomes a director of G1 and will sit on the board.
It’s the second independently owned pub group to go into administration in the last month. The first was Castle Leisure owned by brother Paul and Stephen Smith.
Saltire snap up The Hudson
