The Lucky Onion Group, which owns pubs and hotels across Gloucestershire, has agreed to sell part of its portfolio to London-based brewery Young’s.
While it is understood The Lucky Onion’s flagship No. 131 restaurant, bar and boutique hotel on The Promenade in Cheltenham is not part of the deal, it’s not yet clear which of the Cheltenham-headquartered firm’s venues will change hands.
The business currently owns The Hollow Bottom, The Wild Duck, The Wheatsheaf, No. 38 The Park, Tavern and The Crown, with paperwork yet to be signed.
A spokesperson for Young & Co.’s Brewery plc said: ‘We can confirm that Young’s has agreed to acquire a handful of pubs and hotels in the Cotswolds from The Lucky Onion Group.’
Young’s already owns Cotswold businesses the Blue Boar in Chipping Norton and the Bell in Stow-on-the-Wold.
The Lucky Onion was founded in 2006 by former lawyer Georgie Pearman and her husband and former Gloucester Rugby player Sam Pearman, before Superdry-founder Dunkerton took control in 2017.
Hit hard by the pandemic, in 2021 the business saw staff numbers fall from 94 in 2020 to 66.
Dunkerton continues to have a number of business interests, but since his return to the board of Superdry in 2019 his attentions have been drawn more and more towards turning around the fortunes of the plc he founded back in 2003.
SoGlos has contacted The Lucky Onion group for comment. It is understood that business is continuing as usual at all the venues.
By Andrew Merrell
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