Geronimo extends territory

The sell-off of top-end pubs by Punch Taverns will gather pace today when it exchanges contracts on the sale of six managed pubs in London to Geronimo Inns, a food-led operator backed by Penta Capital, the private equity firm.

Geronimo, which has 21 outlets, was founded by Rupert Clevely, a former champagne marketing executive who switched to running pubs in 1995 after a mid-life crisis. Geronimo, with equity provided by Penta and a number of outside investors, is understood to be paying £8 million to £9 million for the six Punch pubs, and will invest a further £1.5 million upgrading them. The new pubs, four of them freeholds, include the Prince Albert in Battersea, the Elgin in Ladbroke Grove and the Clarence in Whitehall.

Cheerful and cheap

Accor, the French hotel operator, has gone off piste in its pursuit of a new room design for its budget Etap and Motel 6 brands. It has handed the design brief to Priestmangoode, a consultancy better known for designing airline cabins, the Virgin Pendolino train and cruiseliner cabins. Its first foray into hotels was the avant garde Yotel concept, where the emphasis was on small but sexy. For Etap, the agency claims to have come up with the “cheapest European budget hotel room ever designed”.

Testing the water across the pond

Rumours abound that Chipotle Mexican Grill, the American restaurant group once majority-owned by McDonald’s, is close to securing its first site in the UK, somewhere near Oxford Circus, in the West End of London. Chipotle, which has about 860 outlets Stateside, is famous for burritos and tacos with fillings that include naturally raised pork flavoured with thyme, juniper berries and cracked black pepper, rice with coriander and lime and organic beans. It claims to serve “good food served fast”, rather than fast food, boasting that all its ingredients are naturally or organically produced.

Despite the success here of the likes of McDonald’s and Burger King, many other American imports, such as Wendy’s and Chili's, have left with their tails between their legs. In fact, the defunct Chili’s sites are still going begging.

businessfeatures@thetimes.co.uk

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