Yates's () is an English

pub chain A pub chain is a group of pubs or bars operating under a unified brand image. Pubs within a chain are tied houses and can, generally, only sell products which the chain owner sanctions. Pubs in a chain normally display their chain branding pr ...

. 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 Rekom UK (formerly Deltic Group & The Luminar Group Ltd.) was the UK branch of Danish multi-national nightclub operator Rekom. It operated 35 nightclubs and 12 late-night bars across the United Kingdom, including the PRYZM & ATIK brands. On 17 ...

. 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 GI Partners is a middle market private equity firm based in San Francisco, California. Description Founded in 2001, GI Partners is a private investment firm with over 100 employees with offices in San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Greenwich, C ...

. 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 Tchenguiz is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Vincent Tchenguiz (born 1956), Chairman of Consensus Business Group * Robert Tchenguiz (born 1960), co-chairman of Rotch Property Group {{Short pages monitor