While some people go into their local pub to buy a pint, Britain’s super-wealthy have been snapping up the entire business.
Lady Loretta Rothschild, wife of financier Lord Nathaniel Rothschild, is the latest to take over her local, buying The Seven Stars in Bottlesford in Wiltshire, two hours outside London.
As the number of pubs in Britain has steadily declined over the decades, the Rothschilds find themselves among other wealthy current or recent UK residents who have become landlords, often renovating and relaunching places valued by local communities.
Pubs have been under significant pressure for years as alcohol-drinking among UK adults has fallen, thanks in part to cost-of-living pressures and health trends. The average UK adult consumed 10.2 alcoholic drinks a week in 2024, the lowest figure since data collection began in 1990.
Earlier this month chancellor Rachel Reeves suggested she would provide pubs with a package of relief from higher business rates bills.
Graham Thomson, former licensee of the Seven Stars, said the pub had been “on its knees”, thanks in part to a lack of government support, when he sold it. He added that Rothschild’s purchase reflected the trend where “the money keeps going away from the common man” but said he was happy the pub would remain a community space.
A spokesperson for Lord Rothschild, who has been teetotal for 27 years, said: “The Rothschild family have a deep affinity with the local area and farm 3,500 acres near to where the Seven Stars inn is situated. The pub is a critical part of the local community and it was on Lady Rothschild’s initiative that the decision was taken to save it.”
Among the establishments owned by the wealthy is The Bell in Ramsbury, Wiltshire, an 18th-century former coaching inn bought by Stefan Persson, the largest shareholder in retailer H&M who is worth $25bn. Meanwhile Anders Holch Povlsen, who has a net worth of $13.4bn, according to Forbes, owns the Dores Inn, which sits on Loch Ness in Scotland.
The Woolpack Inn in Totford, Hampshire, a low flint and brick building from 1880, is owned by Michel de Carvalho and Charlene de Carvalho-Heineken of the brewing dynasty. She is worth $17.2bn, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Michel de Carvalho said they had “100 per cent” bought the pub to keep it in community use and did not want to make it “some elegant gastropub where the locals feel excluded”. They had refurbished the bedrooms to attract people coming to the area for shooting parties and similar.
There can be a selfish aspect to some of these purchases, he added: “A lot of friends of mine have bought a pub as an ego trip so that they can walk in and say, ‘I’m the owner of the pub,’ and everyone says, ‘Oh, thank you, milord.’ That is absolutely not what we do.”
Philip Eddell, a property consultant, said: “I’ve been involved with a few clients who’ve bought pubs and my advice has always been to buy the pub that’s closed or pretty run down, then you’re a hero for doing it.”
Eddell said some purchases were driven by competitiveness: “I don’t think it’s necessarily about topping or keeping up with the Joneses . . . But equally I can imagine that they note with interest what the neighbour might be doing.”
Alex Langlands Pearse, who has run pubs for wealthy individuals, including the de Carvalhos, said that investors in the nineties might have seen a pub as a diversified asset in a portfolio, whereas now they were more focused on community benefit, as long as the pub broke even.
A non-executive director at the Butcombe Group, a pub and brewing business, Langlands Pearse said pubs needed to turn over at least £1mn a year to be viable and could hit a 20-25 per cent margin if they were very well run, down from 30-35 per cent 30 years ago.
There is also a strong contingent among new pub owners of people who have made money in finance or tech.
Chad Pike, former co-head of the real estate group at Blackstone, bought the Three Daggers in Edington, Wiltshire, while the Purefoy Arms in Preston Candover, Hampshire, is owned by three people including Chris Buchanan of private equity firm Permira and Luke Finch, a partner at private markets business Hg.
Jamie Freeman, a director at property advisers at Haringtons, said: “On the face of it, [pubs] can look inexpensive but ultimately that’s because they make no money. But if they can be run by a wealthy owner who doesn’t need the income, then the business can be more viable.”
Additional reporting by Amy Borrett
