One's enough for this brewer

It is three years since Michael Shallow quit as finance director of Greene King, but he has not severed his ties with the brewing industry. Mr Shallow, who is a non-executive director of Domino's Pizza, Britvic and Spice, owns the Old Cannon Brewery, a pub with its own micro-brewery in Bury St Edmunds. As it happens, the pub was once owned by Greene King, but was closed by the company in 1995 and converted into a photographic studio, and later into a B&B, before becoming a pub again. Its beers include Old Cannon Best Bitter, Gunner's Daughter and Blonde Bombshell. So does Mr Shallow have any plans to buy more pubs? “Never say never, but I don't think so,” he says.

A better class of vice

The recent granting, on appeal, of a gaming licence to the Hippodrome, in Leicester Square, Central London, has caused consternation in the casino industry. The appeal was allowed partly on the grounds of unsatisfied demand - just as the loss-making Gala casino on Piccadilly is preparing to close. Luminar is using the decision as the basis for an appeal against the refusal of its application to run a casino at the old Majestyk nightclub in Leeds. One of the interesting aspects of the Hippodrome appeal was the fear that, if it did not become a casino, it would be turned into a rowdy late-night drinking venue. It appears that the authorities decided that gambling was the lesser of two evils.

Checking out at Goodwood ...

I hear that Lord March's Goodwood Estate in West Sussex is to assume management control of the Goodwood Park Hotel. The 94-room hotel, run for many years under the Marriott brand, has been managed for the past couple of years under the auspices of Gordon Campbell Gray, the founder of One Aldwych, in London. Last year the two men were talking about turning the property into an eco-based hotel, but they have now agreed to part company. A spokeswoman for the estate said that there was no question of any falling out: “Everybody got on very well.”

... and back in at GuestInvest?

Bids are in for GuestInvest, the failed buy-to-let hotel operator. It seems that the administrators at Deloitte have received several offers, although my money is still on Johnny Sandelson, the company's founder, buying it back.

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