Stonegate Group, the UK’s largest pub company, is moving a further 100 pubs out of direct management and into its leased and tenanted Pub Partners business, the Morning Advertiser reported on 9 September 2026. The move follows a first half in which the company already converted 114 sites and reported its strongest trading performance on record.
Stonegate operates more than 3,000 tenanted and leased pubs across England and Wales, according to the Pubs Code Adjudicator’s own description of the company, alongside a smaller directly managed estate and its Craft Union fascia, one part of the wider picture of franchising in the United Kingdom. In the 28 weeks to 12 April 2026, Stonegate’s adjusted earnings rose by £17 million to £201 million, with leased and tenanted like-for-like sales up 1.5% and Craft Union up 4.5%. At that point, the company had already guided that around 320 sites would transition from managed to leased and tenanted status by the end of its current financial year, the same kind of decision anyone weighing how to open a bar or pub in the UK would need to understand from the outset.
A further 100 sites identified
A Stonegate spokesperson said: “Following a comprehensive review of our estate, we have identified a further circa 100 sites that will transition to our Pub Partners business.” The company added that “our strong performance…continues to demonstrate the success of our strategy, ensuring that every site is positioned for success, in the right operating model.” Because the managed estate will shrink further as a result, Stonegate said it is “entering consultation on a number of proposed changes within our support teams.”
A record half year, and a regulator’s investigation
Chief executive David McDowall described the first half as evidence that “the strategy we set out is working.” The same estate transformation strategy sits alongside continuing scrutiny from the Pubs Code Adjudicator, which opened a formal investigation into Stonegate on 15 July 2026 over suspected breaches including inaccurate information given to tied tenants, defective schedules of condition and unreasonable rent projections. Fiona Dickie, the Pubs Code Adjudicator, said the Code “provides important rights entitling tied pub tenants…to transparent information,” and noted that Stonegate tenants have recorded the lowest satisfaction scores among regulated pub companies for three consecutive years.
Good to know
Stonegate’s leased and tenanted pubs, run under its Pub Partners fascia, are not franchises. A tenant leases the premises and is typically tied to buy certain drinks from the landlord, a relationship regulated by the Pubs Code 2016 rather than by any franchise agreement, since the UK has no separate statute covering franchising itself.
What happens next
The Pubs Code Adjudicator collected evidence from current and former Stonegate tenants until 5 August 2026 and is now reviewing submissions before deciding whether breaches occurred and what enforcement action might follow. Stonegate has not said how many of its roughly 100 newly identified sites will move immediately, nor how many support roles are affected by the consultation it has opened. Confirmation of both would typically follow in the company’s full-year results or a further trade announcement.
FAQ
Pub Partners is Stonegate’s leased and tenanted business, covering several distinct agreement types rather than one single model, including fixed-term tenancies, turnover-based tenancies and leases, and its Craft Union operator-led format, run by an individual rather than by Stonegate’s own managers.
No. A Pub Partners tenant leases the premises and is typically tied to buy certain drinks from Stonegate as landlord, a relationship regulated by the Pubs Code 2016, not by a franchise agreement, since the UK has no separate franchising statute.
114 sites moved from managed to leased and tenanted status in the 28 weeks to 12 April 2026, with a further circa 100 sites identified for the same transition as of 9 September 2026.
