McMullen & Sons Ltd

McMullens’ philosophy is one simple word: Respect. Respect for our guests, who are spending their hard-earned pound with us. Respect for our team, who entrust their working life and career aspirations to us. Respect for our tenants and pub operators, who as business partners commit to commercial relationships with us. Respect for our shareholders who invest through good and bad times. The challenge, of course, is balancing the sometimes conflicting expectations of all of the above.

McMullens has grown organically since 1827 without relying on bank debt. This has given us the freedom to continually invest in our pubs and people without the distraction of having to pay down interest on money owed. We operate a business model that values long term stability over quick unsustainable profit and our team, business partners and guests can take comfort from the knowledge that we intend to be around for as long as they need us. In fact our business purpose is simply “to ensure that generations can rely on Macs” and this means generations of guests, team, business partners and suppliers - and also the Treasury and wider community. These latter two stakeholders also need our business to be successful and stable so that we can continue to contribute, through tax and community engagement, to our wider society.

McMullens is not a big company but we invest heavily in our team training and career development. The managed house team has developed back-to-back AMLR Area Managers of the Year and our training facilities and commitment to staff development has been recognised with a BII NITA award for Best Development Programme. All the training resources available to our managed team are also available to our business partners.

The majority of McMullens’ pubs are run by us as managed houses. Day-in and day-out we operate pubs and, as a result, have a deep-seated and up-to-date understanding of the challenges and rewards of running a pub. This endears genuine empathy and provides a pool of skills, knowledge and business support that our business partners can tap into as they wish.

McMullens operates around 85 managed houses, and the remainder of the licenced estate consists of approximately 35 tenancies, 2 agreements with pub operators and 8 pubs acquired subject to leases without supply arrangements. These numbers vary as the Company continually seeks new acquisitions and new build opportunities and reviews its business models in light of the local market and the wider economic picture.

McMullens (the first All-Party Parliamentary Beer Group’s Brewer of the Year)brews a mixture of authentic heritage cask and contemporary kegged beers. On the heritage side AK has been continually brewed since 1833 and the provenance of McMullen’s IPAs goes back to at least the 1840s when the founder, Peter McMullen, was advertising his East India Pale Ale in the Hertfordshire Mercury. Other brands include Stronghart (former CAMRA Champion Beer of Great Britain) and Castle (four times Le Monde gold medal winner). On the contemporary front the brewery is producing a multitude of small batched kegged beers under the Rivertown sub-brand.

Run a pub with McMullens

McMullens, like all members of the IFBB, can point to a proven ability to work together with business partners in a sustainable and mutually beneficial manner. The existence of pubs that have been run as tenancies over, in some cases, nearly 190 years is testament to this. We also share with other members a commitment to our assets and people over generations and a desire to act in a respectful and fair manner that is, in part, driven by our business and family name being the same.

Prospective business partners can benefit from the fact that McMullens also runs approximately 85 managed houses with a diverse estate. As a result we have a management pool that is operating our own pubs simultaneously and in the same area as those of our business partners. Therefore, we have an up-to-date and relevant understanding of the trade at any point in time and can genuinely empathise with the challenges and rewards of running a pub. None of our pubs are more than 90 minutes away from our office which means we can provide timely and personal support. The managed estate also provides a wealth of comparable financial data that allows business partners to benchmark their performance and identify further profit opportunities.

McMullens is a company that values the long-term business approach. We are not beholden to the markets or the public scrutiny of analysts seeking to appraise the Company’s short-term performance at the cost of the long-term sustainability. Nonetheless, while we may have a steady long-term approach, we also strive to remain innovative and customer focused. We have survived nearly two centuries by listening to our guests, business partners and team and progressing with the times while remaining true to our values.

If you are interested in running one of our pubs as an independent operator, please contact James.Hulston@McMullens.co.uk

If you are interested in a career with McMullens in our managed estate please contact recruitment@mcmullens.co.uk or visit www.mcmullens.co.uk for further information