Brent Walker
George Walker, one time boxer, founded the Brent Walker leisure group.
1974 Brent Walker Ltd was listed on the Stock Exchange[1]
1982 Brent Walker was taken private to avoid an unwanted takeover bid
1985 Brent Walker returned to a Stock Market listing, intending to acquire Brighton Marina[2]
1987 Acquired casinos from Lonrho
1988 Brent Walker purchased Lonrho's European wines and spirits business, including the distilled beverage company Whyte and Mackay, Claymore Whisky and 4 Bordeaux Chateaus, taking Brent Walker into production of drinks for the first time[3]
1989 Acquired Ellerman Holdings including Tollemache and Cobbold and J. W. Cameron and Co[4]
1989 Closed the Tolly Cobbold brewery in Ipswich; the wines and spirits businesses would be handled by Whyte and Mackay[5]
1990 Whyte and Mackay, including Claymore Whisky and Haig, was sold to American Brands (later called Fortune Brands).[6]
1991 Pubmaster was formed by Brent Walker as a national chain of mainly tenanted pub properties, managed pubs, inns, and restaurants including 386 Grand Metropolitan pubs acquired in 1988 and 800 pubs acquired with the Cameron and Tolly Cobbold breweries.
1991 George Walker, founder of the business, was removed from his position as Chief Executive of the company
1996 Pubmaster was sold to Silverfleet Capital Limited, a private equity group. At the time it comprised 1,600 pubs. The main asset remaining in the group was the William Hill chain of betting shops[7]
1997 William Hill was acquired by Nomura International but the price paid was insufficient to cover the groups debts which was expected to be put into liquidation[8]