Amber Taverns grew turnover 9.6% to £131.5 million and EBITDA 11.5% to £28.1 million in the year to 1 February 2026, while interest costs kept it in a pre-tax loss. The community pub group, which runs its pubs through an operator agreement, is preparing its first pub inside the M25, in Bromley.
Amber Taverns ran 191 pubs in August 2026, mostly wet-led community pubs across the North West, North East, Midlands, Scotland and Wales. In the 2026 financial year it opened 16 sites for an investment of £15.3 million, including Airdrie and Leith in Scotland and Barry in Wales.
Four more have opened since the year end, in Barnstaple, Weymouth, Weston-super-Mare and Peterborough. The results, reported by the Morning Advertiser on 28 September 2026, are the first published since Richard Lewis joined as chief executive on 14 September.
Record trading, then a loss after interest
Like-for-like sales rose 2.4% across the year: flat in the first half, then up 5.5% in the second. The operating picture improved, but the bottom line did not. The group recorded a loss before tax of £9.2 million, against £3.6 million a year earlier, mainly because of £22.3 million of interest on senior loans, preference shares and sale-and-leaseback financing, the kind of debt-funded expansion a franchised network avoids by putting the site cost onto the operator, as what it costs to open a franchise in the UK sets out.
Management says current trading is in line with expectations and that margins are running ahead of last year. The finance function is also changing hands: Glenn Pearson has replaced Joanne Jones, who is retiring as chief financial officer.
An operator agreement, not a franchise
Amber’s pubs are neither franchised nor let on traditional tied tenancies. The company says it offers “an operator agreement to all our licensees”, under which the licensee is incentivised to develop the pub, and it has described itself as focused on a hybrid “operator-managed” model. What each of the routes into running a pub commits an operator to is set out in how to open a pub in the UK.
James Baer, founder and chairman of Amber Taverns, said: “Amber remains testament to the validity of thriving community pubs.”
Operator agreement, tenancy or franchise
UK pub companies use several models: tied tenancies and leases, covered in England and Wales by the Pubs Code for the largest pubcos; management or operator agreements; and, more rarely, franchises such as Greene King’s Hive Pubs, where the operator trades under the brand’s system rather than as a tenant, a distinction set out in what a franchise is. Amber describes its own model as an operator agreement.
Bromley and a faster pipeline
The pipeline now reaches the south of England: Bromley, the group’s first site inside the M25, sits alongside Salisbury, Cosham, Hastings, Eastleigh, Colchester, Thornaby, Alloa and Dumbarton. In August 2026, Amber said it would raise acquisitions from around 18 pubs a year to up to 25, with the potential to double the estate over time.
Baer stressed at the time that the model would not change, and that growth would not come at the expense of the estate’s quality: “It’s not a numbers game. It’s not that we have to get these pins on a map, it’s about good sites in good locations that give local communities a great offer.”
The next markers are the Bromley opening date and whether the new chief executive holds that pace while interest costs remain the largest drag on profit. Brands that expand through franchised operators instead can be compared across the UK franchise directory.
