THE new owners of Sandpiper’s hospitality estate want to buy more pubs in Guernsey if their deal goes through. Sixty-five pubs, 32 of them in Guernsey, and two drinks distributors, including Bucktrout & Co., are being sold to an as yet unnamed company.

The new business has the existing Sandpiper management, is funded by Legal and General Ventures and is led by former London Town plc chief executive Mark Crowther.

Contracts were exchanged at the end of last week and the deal should go ahead, subject to approval from the Jersey Competition Regulatory Authority.

Mr Crowther said that customers and staff need not be alarmed. ‘It’s not like there is a whole bunch of people coming to the Channel Islands who don’t have a clue about how it works here. This is an existing team with loads of experience. Dave Robilliard at Bucktrout’s, for example, is part of the senior team coming in and he has touching 20 years of experience and there are others who are similar.’