Heineken eyes Scottish on-trade with refurbishments totalling £4 million

Heineken is planning to invest more than £4 million in transforming dozens of pubs in Scotland to cater for a growing interest in premium food and drink offers.

Around 14 Scottish pubs in locations including Edinburgh, Glasgow and Inverness have been earmarked for makeovers by Heineken through its Star Pubs & Bars estate, according to SLTN, spending some £4.4 million on “major transformative refurbishments.”

Mick Howard, operations director at Star Pubs & Bars, said the latest projects are part of a “very structured plan” to bring more premium offers into its Scottish pubs.

“We’ve a lot of plans for this year and next year, investing in wet-led pubs to create a more premium offer with food.”

“We want pubs to prosper at the heart of their communities for generations to come and believe that they can do so when they are well-invested and run by good, motivated operators. They need to continue to evolve to meet changing consumer needs and we’re there to help them do so.”

Pubs set to get a revamp include the the Woodhall Arms in Currie, McPhabbs in Glasgow, and Blackfriars in Inverness, which will see investment of between £400,000 and £450,000.

The news comes as Star announced plans to introduce a rotational craft beer scheme to enable craft focussed pubs to broaden their selection and introduce regularly changing guest craft beers.

The scheme offers pubs with “an established craft” the ability to stock 10 draught craft beers from both Heineken and third-party brewers on a six-month rotation.