Following the Seafood Pub Company winning the Catery's Pub and Bar award this week, a majority stake in the business has been acquired by Penta Capital.
The private equity investor, which has grown Geronimo Inns, La Tasca and EAT, is planning to sink £18 into the expansion of the gastro-pub group's estate, which is currently made up of eight sites across the North West.
The firm aims to more than double its size and expand to 20 sites over the next three to five years. The acquisition strategy will continue to focus in the North of England through a combination of freehold and leasehold sites spreading its geographic footprint into Cheshire, the Lake District and North Yorkshire.
The business plans to maintain a minimum 70% freehold estate and recently secured its ninth site, the Forest Inn in Fence near Pendle in Lancashire, which is due to open in August 2016. A tenth site has also been identified and is due to be announced shortly.
The Seafood Pub Company was founded in 2010 by Joycelyn Neve (pictured) and started trading in 2011 with its first pub, The Oyster & Otter in Blackburn, Lancashire, when Neve was just 25.