Shaker Group, established in 2001 and run by husband-and-wife team Adam and Theresa Freeth has taken on its first Star Pubs & Bars lease, The White Hart in Redditch, together with their group operations manager, Victoria Coliandris. The pub, which has been closed since the start of the year, will reopen in early September as a premium family and dog friendly local following a £400,000 plus joint refurbishment with Star Pubs & Bars.
The Hart is the first of five sites the group intends to establish in the next three years, together with members of their team who are ready and keen to run their own pubs. The group already owns Gas Street Social in The Mailbox in Birmingham & The Orangery, a restaurant & hotel in Redditch. It also has the Shaker Consultancy and Shaker Bar School a training and bar consultancy firm working across projects in the UK, Europe, Africa. Recent projects include training beverage staff for Marriott across Europe and for 19 different bars on P&O Cruises including training their 70+ team on their latest ship, The Iona.
Adam says: “We are building our business model around our people. Our people are recruited because of their potential and ambition not just experience. We will grow our estate as and when members of our team are ready to take on sites. We’ve trained tens of thousands of people over the years and most share a desire to be their own boss. However, many remain ‘intrapreneurial’ working within businesses and receive just a wage. They don’t get the upside from the risk of putting their own money into a business. With our background of running our own restaurant, pubs and hotels together with our consultancy expertise we can help ambitious team members to progress to the next level.
“We’ve had our eye on the White Hart for 10 years. It’s a fantastic pub in a great location with the potential for multiple income streams. There’s nothing like it within a 100-mile radius. If it works well we would hope to look at other Star pubs in the future for our expansion plans. Coincidentally, the very first pub I worked in was my mother’s pub in Redditch – The Duck Inn. It is now a Star site.”
Phil Mardon, Star Pubs & Bars’ Area Manager says:
“The changes to the White Hart are going to be massive and will result in a fantastic pub for the local community. It’s great to have The Shaker Group on board and I look forward to building a long-term relationship, helping them grow their pub business.”
