Mustard pulls out of Star City

Mustard Entertainment Restaurants, owner of the Brannigans chain of late-night bars, is to close its Mustard Bar in Birmingham's Star City leisure complex and sell off several other businesses. Mustard's chief executive, Stephen Evans, revealed in February that the Star City bar was losing thousands of pounds a week. He claimed the problems were the result of poor marketing of the complex by owner Marylebone Warwick Balfour (MWB). MWB claimed all its tenants were trading well. Said Evans: "We have battled with the landlords since the opening of the site last July, to improve marketing and security on the site. "The irony is that our efforts have helped to bring about a proposed investment of £1m, which will benefit the other occupants. "But we just can't afford to divert our attention away from the real future." Mustard is also selling two pubs in Glasgow and Kilmarnock for more than £1m. And it has put the Stables pub in Glasgow on the market with a £600,000 price tag. A Luckies bar in Stockport, Greater Manchester, has been converted into the first Brannigans Metro, a half-size version of the original. Mustard intends to concentrate on Brannigans, Brannigans Metro, and Firewall, the branded restaurants it has introduced into its existing sites. It has exchanged contracts for a new Brannigans site in Cardiff, expected to open at the end of August at a cost of £1.5m. It is also considering converting the Mustard bar in Aberdeen into the first stand-alone Firewall restaurant.