Aberdeen businessman David Reid has snapped up his second pub in the Granite City and is mulling expansion to Edinburgh.
The latest addition to the property agent turned publican’s Doric Pub Company venture is the Kittybrewster Bar and Ashgrove Lounge in Powis Terrace.
Mr Reid, a former partner at property consultant Knight Frank and ex-director of rival firm Christie & Co, moved into pub ownership with the purchase of the Brig O’ Dee Bar in Holburn Street in 2012.
His swoop on the Kittybrewster/Ashgrove business ends a spell of more than 30 years of it being owned and run by Andrew and Ann Chapman.
Completing the acquisition yesterday, Mr Reid, who has helped to sell countless pubs, restaurants and hotels throughout Scotland, said: “I had been looking to expand the Doric Pub Co for over a year and nothing that I looked at seemed exactly right.
“I have built up a good management team in Aberdeen, where I am now based, and with Scot Strathdee moving from the Brig O’ Dee to run the Kittybrewster and Nicola Williams taking over the running of the Brig O’ Dee, this purchase was the perfect fit.
“It gives the company ideal representation on the south and north sides of Aberdeen.
“I am still a property agent – acting for just a few specific clients, which takes me away to Edinburgh, London and Glasgow quite regularly – but as Doric Pub Co grows, I see perhaps one more similar unit in the north-east.
“We might then diversify a little or buy something in Edinburgh. Its certainly not my plan to buy big units, with catering or whatever – I’ll leave that to the bigger companies who know that market’’.
The value of the deal was undisclosed but Christie had marketed the business at offers over £395,000.
Christie negotiator Jamie Jackson said: “I am delighted that we achieved success for Andrew and Ann at a time where there is some negativity in Aberdeen due to the low oil price.
“It was a pleasure to deal with established and professional vendors, who were realistic in an ever changing market, but also to deal with a purchaser who knew what he was wanting and had cash reserves.”
The Chapmans said they felt the time was right to “hang up our bar aprons, spend time with our family and friends, and see a bit of the world.
They added: “David Reid is the perfect person to develop the business even further and we wish he and his management team every success for the future”