Punch's Mercury division to contain more than 700 pubs

A new division of the Punch pub business, called Mercury, is to contain 739 pubs.

Mercury, which is headed by Paul Pavli who previously ran Punch's new business division, will replace its turnaround division and aims to deliver like-for-like growth by 2017.

The creation of the division follows an internal review of the business, and was announced in the company's interim results earlier this week.

It will include 499 pubs already in the turnaround division, as well as an additional 240 from the "core" sector of the business.

Punch said it recognised the success delivered by its turnaround (non-core) sector so far and, as a result, the purpose of Mercury would be to "continue its legacy; to deliver like-for-like growth in an estate of sites under a more intensive, empowered operating model".

Duncan Garrood, CEO, said: "Across the wider business we have a clear focus on improving customer service, and as such have reviewed all of our key processes to ensure we put the customer (our publican) at the heart of everything we do.

"The creation of Mercury is part of this and we have big plans for the 739 pubs that come under this banner. We have a clear target to deliver like-for-like growth in this division from the end of 2017 supported by the sign-up of pubs on more flexible tenancy agreements, and look forward to seeing the Mercury pubs grow thanks to the model we are putting into action."

Punch has a total of more than 3,500 leased and tenanted pubs nationwide.

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