Brent Walker was a British company involved in
property
Property is a system of rights that gives people legal control of valuable things, and also refers to the valuable things themselves. Depending on the nature of the property, an owner of property may have the right to consume, alter, share, r ...
,
gambling
Gambling (also known as betting or gaming) is the wagering of something of value ("the stakes") on a random event with the intent of winning something else of value, where instances of strategy are discounted. Gambling thus requires three el ...
,
distilled beverage
Liquor (or a spirit) is an alcoholic drink produced by distillation of grains, fruits, vegetables, or sugar, that have already gone through alcoholic fermentation. Other terms for liquor include: spirit drink, distilled beverage or hard li ...
s and
pubs
A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...
. It was founded by
George Walker George Walker may refer to:
Arts and letters
* George Walker (chess player) (1803–1879), English chess player and writer
*George Walker (composer) (1922–2018), American composer
* George Walker (illustrator) (1781–1856), author of ''The Co ...
, the brother of the boxer
Billy Walker.
In 1991, following the accumulation of debts which had been used to finance acquisitions, George Walker was ousted from the company and its board sold its remaining investments under the supervision of its bankers.
George Walker
Born in London, George Walker career began as a porter at
Billingsgate Fish Market
Billingsgate Fish Market is located in Canary Wharf in London. It is the United Kingdom's largest inland fish market. It takes its name from Billingsgate, a ward in the south-east corner of the City of London, where the riverside market was origi ...
. Like his brother, Walker became a boxer of the 1950s. Following his retirement from the ring he undertook a number of business ventures including Dolly's nightclub in London.
Foundations of the company
In 1974, Walker arranged a
reverse takeover
A reverse takeover (RTO), reverse merger, or reverse IPO is the acquisition of a public company by a private company so that the private company can bypass the lengthy and complex process of going public. Sometimes, conversely, the public compan ...
of Hackney and Hendon Greyhound Company, a stock market listed company, sold his own business interests to it and changed its name to Brent Walker. Using land from the
Hendon Greyhound Stadium
Hendon Greyhound Stadium was a greyhound racing stadium in Hendon, London.
Origins
The area of Hendon famously has special links to greyhound racing based on the fact that on the 6 March 1876 the first attempt at mechanical racing took place on ...
, Brent Walker entered into a joint venture with
Hammerson
Hammerson plc is a major British property development and investment company. The firm switched to real estate investment trust (REIT) status when they were introduced in the United Kingdom in January 2007. It is listed on the London Stock Excha ...
Estates to develop the
Brent Cross Shopping Centre
Brent Cross Shopping Centre is a large shopping centre in Hendon, north London, owned by Hammerson and Abrdn. Located by the Brent Cross interchange, it opened in 1976 as the UK's first out-of-town shopping centre. Brent Cross attracted 15–1 ...
, taking a 25% stake. Brent Walker sold its interest in Brent Cross to Hammerson in 1976.
Operations, acquisitions and disposals
The films ''
The Stud'' (1978), ''
The Bitch'' and ''
Quadrophenia
''Quadrophenia'' is the sixth studio album by the English rock band the Who, released as a double album on 26 October 1973 by Track Records. It is the group's third rock opera, the two previous being the "mini-opera" song " A Quick One, While ...
'' (both 1979) were financed by Brent Walker in the 1970s, through Brent Walker Film Distributors Limited. Video productions of
Gilbert & Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan was a Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the dramatist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and the composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900), who jointly created fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which ''H.M.S. Pina ...
operas were produced in the 1980s. In 1987, the company acquired
Goldcrest Films
Goldcrest Films is an award-winning independent British distribution, production, post production, and finance company. Operating from London and New York, Goldcrest is a privately owned integrated filmed entertainment company.
Goldcrest Films ov ...
, through the Masterman joint venture with the Ensign Trust. That year, in 1987, it bought out troubled television production company Trillion for £12 million, and bought out shares from Charterhall, the European investor company. In 1979, Brent Walker acquired the
Camera Effects
Camera Effects was a film opticals ( post-production and visual effects) studio based in Soho, London from 1964 till its closure in 1987. It had a world wide reputation for producing film special effects and titles for television commercia ...
post-production and visual effects company which was sold to Rank Organisation in 1981.
Brent Walker operated
Southend Pier
Southend Pier is a major landmark in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, United Kingdom. Extending into the Thames Estuary, it is the longest pleasure pier in the world. The bill to build the new pier, to replace a previous timber jetty, received Royal ...
between 1986 and 1988. It also acquired the
Kursaal
Kursaal may refer to:
*Kursaal (amusement park), an amusement park in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England
* Kursaal Ward, a council ward in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England
* Dome Cinema, Worthing, previously named the Kursaal
* Royal Hall, Harrogate, ...
amusement park in Southend in 1988. The local authority stepped in to take over this dilapidated property in the 1990s.
The
London Trocadero
The London Trocadero was an entertainment complex on Coventry Street, with a rear entrance in Shaftesbury Avenue, London. It was originally built in 1896 as a restaurant, which closed in 1965. In 1984, the complex reopened as an exhibition and en ...
, a property in London's
West End originally built as a restaurant, was acquired in 1987 as a joint venture with Robin Power, an Irish developer. Brent Walker sold its interest to Power in 1991 at a substantial loss.
Elstree Studios
Elstree Studios is a generic term which can refer to several current and demolished British film studios and television studios based in or around the town of Borehamwood and village of Elstree in Hertfordshire, England. Production studios ha ...
, Borehamwood were acquired in 1988. Brent Walker obtained planning permission for the construction of a
Tesco
Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, England. In 2011 it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues and the ninth-largest in th ...
supermarket on the backlot and the studios fell out of use. Faced with a potential compulsory purchase, Brent Walker sold the remaining property to
Hertsmere
Hertsmere is a local government district and borough in Hertfordshire, England. Its council is based in Borehamwood. Other settlements in the borough include Bushey, Elstree, Radlett and Potters Bar. The borough borders the three north London ...
Council in 1996.
The
Cameron and
Tolly Cobbold
Tolly Cobbold is a former brewery in Suffolk, England.
History
The name Tolly Cobbold is an amalgamation of the two family-run brewers: the Tollemache Brewery owned by the Tollemache family and the Cobbold Brewery owned by the Cobbold famil ...
Breweries were acquired from Ellerman Investments, a company owned by the
Barclay brothers
Sir David Rowat Barclay (27 October 1934 – 10 January 2021) and Sir Frederick Hugh Barclay (born 27 October 1934), commonly referred to as the "Barclay Brothers" or "Barclay Twins", were British billionaires. They were identical twin brothers ...
, in 1988 for £240m. The company closed Tolly Cobbold's Cliff Brewery in Ipswich in 1989 and transferred production to Cameron's Hartlepool brewery. The Hartlepool brewery was sold to
Wolverhampton and Dudley Breweries in 1992.
Pubmaster was formed by Brent Walker as an estate of mainly tenanted pub properties including 386
Grand Metropolitan
Grand Metropolitan plc was a leisure, manufacturing and property conglomerate headquartered in England. The company was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index until it merged with Guinness plc to form ...
pubs acquired in 1988 and 800 pubs acquired with the Cameron and Tolly Cobbold breweries. Pubmaster was sold in November 1996 to Silverfleet Capital Limited, a private equity group. At the time it comprised 1600 pubs.
In 1988, Brent Walker purchased the distilled beverage company
Whyte & Mackay
Whyte & Mackay is a company producing alcoholic beverages based in Glasgow, Scotland. It is owned by Emperador Inc. (a subsidiary of the Alliance Global Group).
History
Charles Mackay (1850–1919) and James Whyte founded a company as whisky ...
. The company was sold to American Brands (later called Fortune Brands) in 1990.
The
William Hill chain of betting shops and Mecca Bookmakers, were acquired from
Grand Metropolitan
Grand Metropolitan plc was a leisure, manufacturing and property conglomerate headquartered in England. The company was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index until it merged with Guinness plc to form ...
in 1989 for £685 million. In 1997 William Hill was sold to Nomura for £700m.
Collapse
Brent Walker accumulated debts of £1.2bn by 1991 with debt-financed acquisitions. A collapse in property prices and high interest rates placed the company in financial difficulties. George Walker was ousted from the Board in 1991 and the group's bankers took control, enforcing a process of sale of the company's assets. Following the sale of William Hill in 1997, the company was removed from the stock exchange and wound up.
Serious fraud trial
In 1994, the
Serious Fraud Office brought a case against George Walker and Brent Walker's former finance director Wilfred Aquilina, accusing them of inflating profits at the film division by £19.3m in an effort to lure investors. After a four and a half month trial costing an estimated £40m, Walker was cleared of all charges, while Aquilina was convicted of false accounting, sentenced to 18 months imprisonment suspended for two years, and fined £25,000.
References
{{Real estate in the United Kingdom
1959 establishments in England
1991 disestablishments in England
Accounting scandals
Business ethics cases
Entertainment companies established in 1959
Entertainment companies disestablished in 1991
Property companies of the United Kingdom
Real estate companies established in 1959