South East: Funding deal aids brewery group Upham’s ongoing expansion

The south’s fastest-growing new pub and brewery company, The Upham Group, has secured a substantial new funding deal from NatWest.

The company, which launched with its first pub acquisition in May 2013, already owns 12 pubs and inns across Hampshire, Berkshire, Sussex, Dorset and Wiltshire, and employs around 400 staff.

The Group is centred around Upham Brewery, which crafts real ales in the grounds of an Upham farmstead near Winchester. The Brewery supplies more than 450 stockists with its staple ales Punter, Tipster and Stakes, as well as seasonal special ales.

Now the business has secured £6 million of funding from NatWest to support its plans to acquire additional pubs and upgrade some of those already in its portfolio.

Financial director Robb Harris said: “For NatWest to be supporting us like this is quite an endorsement for our model and strategy. We are a comparatively small business with big ambitions and this funding will enable us to keep momentum, buying more pubs, creating more jobs and generating more sales for the brewery. In turn, we hope to generate more funds for us to continue to invest. It becomes self-fulfilling.”

A desire to be at the centre of the community is the driving force behind one of the Group’s latest acquisitions, The White Hart in Overton.

The Group has also just added The Mill at Gordleton, a popular restaurant-with-rooms, to its portfolio. Other projects in the pipeline include the addition of accommodation and covers at The Running Horse in Littleton, outside Winchester. The Group is also seeking planning permission for luxury log cabins at The Thomas Lord in West Meon.

Until now the Group has been entirely funded by equity. The three-and-a-half year revolving credit facility now agreed with NatWest is the first time it has taken on debt.

NatWest relationship director Chris Priest said: “The business has already managed to raise a lot of capital and has built a good solid base for us to support the next phase of its growth.”

Harris added: “Right from the start the NatWest team has shown interest and enthusiasm for the company. We sat down with seven banks but, ultimately, it was the flexibility and the team approach from NatWest that led us to choose them.”