Top 100: Simon Townsend, Ei Group

Overall ranking: 21 (new entry)

Pub and bar operator ranking: 6 (new entry)

Snapshot

What we think

The group had some well-documented problems in 2007 when it was hit by the credit crunch and forced to sell swathes of the estate. It now stands at around 5,000 pubs, with the majority still leased and tenanted, but with a growing managed house group. Since taking over from Tuppen, Townsend has made his mark on the business and reshaped it as a modern, forward-looking pub group.