Yates's () is an English pub chain. It was founded as Yates's Wine Lodge in

Oldham Oldham is a town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amongst the Pennines on elevated ground between the rivers River Irk, Irk and River Medlock, Medlock, southeast of Rochdale, and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative cent ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

, by Peter and Simon Yates in 1884.

History

Yates is Britain's oldest pub chain. Its motto was ''moderation is true temperance''. The founders, brothers Peter and Simon Yates were from Preston. Peter was sent to Spain to learn about wine. Simon went to the United States to learn about business methods. The first Yates Wine Lodge opened in Oldham in 1884.

Ownership

Public company

On 23 July 1994, Yates became a

public company A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of share capital, stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter (finance), over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) co ...

owned by the Yates Group PLC (Yates Brothers Wine Lodges PLC). The Yates Group also owned Ha! Ha! Bar & Canteen and operated pubs under the Blob Shop and Addison's name. In the late 1990s, its

share price A share price is the price of a single share of a number of saleable equity shares of a company. In layman's terms, the stock price is the highest amount someone is willing to pay for the stock, or the lowest amount that it can be bought for. B ...

rose to reach a high of 550p in 1998. In June 2001, the Yates Group entered

takeover In business, a takeover is the purchase of one company (the ''target'') by another (the ''acquirer'' or ''bidder''). In the UK, the term refers to the acquisition of a public company whose shares are publicly listed, in contrast to the acquisi ...

talks with Luminar Group. In July 2001, it withdrew from takeover talks and said it would instead sell off 25 of its pubs, later putting 18 of them up for sale. On 1 November 2001 the Yates Group sold eight pubs to Morrells for £4 million, with four being in Grantham, Slough, Solihull and Tunbridge Wells. In October 2003, Yates sold its Aussie White fortified brand to

Halewood International Halewood International or Halewood Artisanal Spirits PLC are UK-based distiller and distributor of artisanal spirits. They are one of the UK's largest independent artisanal spirits distillers which exports to 95 countries. Structure Hale ...

for £1 million.

Management buyout

In June 2004, when 30% of the company was owned by the Dickson and Yates family, the Yates Group had a management

buyout In finance, a buyout is an investment transaction by which the ownership equity, or a controlling interest of a company, or a majority share of the capital stock of the company is acquired. The acquirer thereby "buys out" the present equity holde ...

offer (MBO) funded by GI Partners. At the time, the company was valued at £98.4 million (140p a share) and employed 4,000 people. While GI Partners only received 16% of acceptances from shareholders (not the 90% it was looking for), the bid proceeded in October 2004.

Takeover by Laurel Pub Company

By 2005, the Yates Group had grown to 125 Yates pubs and 25 Ha! Ha! bars. In April 2005, the company was approached by the Tchenguiz-owned Laurel Pub Company and a £200-million merger was completed on 20 May 2005. A few weeks later, Laurel bought many of the sites belonging to the bankrupt SFI Group PLC, which owned Slug and Lettuce.

Administration

On 27 March 2008, Laurel was put into

administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal: the process of dealing with or controlling things or people. ** Administrative assistant, traditionally known as a se ...

Takeover by Stonegate Pub company

In 2011 European private equity firm

TDR capital TDR Capital LLP is a British private equity firm headquartered in London, England. History TDR Capital was co-founded in 2002 by Manjit Dale, Stephen Robertson, and Tudor Capital.

announced the merger between pub companies Stonegate and Town & City.

Business

There are still more than 70 Yates pubs or bars in the UK, although there is no longer one in Oldham. The site of the original Yates Wine Lodge is now a

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation, doing business as McDonald's, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain. As of 2024, it is the second largest by number of locations in the world, behind only the Chinese ch ...

and is marked by a plaque on Oldham High Street. Some Yates have been converted to Slug and Lettuce pubs in recent years. Yates Australian White continues to be made by

and is sold in 35-centilitre, 70-centilitre and 1.5-litre containers.

References

External links

Official website
(archived) * {{Authority control 1884 establishments in the United Kingdom Companies based in Luton Companies based in Oldham Restaurants established in 1884 Companies formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange History of Oldham Pub chains Stonegate Pub Company