Proper Pubs, the community pub division of Admiral Taverns, has reached 250 sites and is adopting an acquisition-led growth strategy, Propel reported on 9 November. In October Admiral agreed to buy Mountain Pub Company, whose ten pubs will sit within Proper Pubs on completion.
Admiral Taverns, headquartered in Chester, said on 8 October that Proper Pubs operated 245 pubs across England, Scotland and Wales. The group as a whole runs more than 1,350 mainly wet-led community pubs, an estate larger than most of the food and drink franchises in the UK. Propel’s report on managing director Nathan Wall puts the Proper Pubs estate at 250 sites, a rise of five in about a month, though the dates of the two counts are not identical.
The estate and the strategy
The Admiral release describes Proper Pubs as “the award-winning community wet-led operator division” of Admiral Taverns and gives its estate as 245 pubs across England, Scotland and Wales. Propel’s 9 November headline places the estate at 250 sites and says the division is adopting an acquisition-led growth strategy.
The Mountain Pub Company deal
Admiral is buying Mountain Pub Company from investment manager Downing. Mountain runs ten operator-managed community pubs in the north of England, including the Southport Coaster and the White Hart in Todmorden. The price has not been stated, and the release speaks of the acquisition taking place “upon completion”, so the deal was not complete when announced.
Chris Jowsey, chief executive of Admiral Taverns, said: “We have long admired the Mountain Pubs business.” Helen Standing, chief executive of Mountain Pubs, said the “operating-partner model combines local entrepreneurship with clear operating standards”. After completion, Mountain will be led within Proper Pubs by Nathan Wall.
Good to know
Admiral Taverns’ release calls Proper Pubs an operator division, and describes Mountain’s pubs as operator-managed, one of several routes into running a pub set out in our guide to opening a pub in the UK. Pub companies in England and Wales commonly use tenancies, leases and managed arrangements, which are not the same as franchising, and the release does not use the word franchise.
Who leads Proper Pubs
Wall was appointed managing director of Proper Pubs in July 2025, succeeding Mark Brooke, who had held the role since June 2020 and moved to become chief executive of Amber Taverns in May 2025, according to the Morning Advertiser. Wall’s earlier roles included operations director at JD Wetherspoon for 11 years and managing director for the UK and Ireland at the airport retailer SSP.
What has not been disclosed
The price of the Mountain deal has not been stated, and the open text of the Propel report does not say how many further acquisitions the division is planning or what size of target it has in mind. Whether the 250-site count includes any of the ten Mountain pubs is not stated either. The Admiral release says the pubs will join Proper Pubs after completion, and a completion date has not been published in the material reviewed.
