About us
Greene King is the country’s leading pub retailer and brewer, with a heritage of running pubs and brewing beer which can be traced back over 200 years. Our impressive range of pubs, restaurants and hotels, together with our world-famous ale brands and our excellent customer service, makes us what we are today – experts in hospitality.
We operate, rent and lease pubs and restaurants throughout England, Wales and Scotland. With our base in Suffolk, we serve over 1,800 communities throughout mainland Britain. Our place at the heart of those communities is as important to us as our reputation as responsible retailers.
What we do
Greene King’s main businesses are our managed pubs, restaurants and hotels, a tenanted and leased division, and the brewing and distribution of our world-famous ales such as Greene King IPA, Abbot Ale, Old Speckled Hen and Belhaven Best. Some of our better known pub brands are Hungry Horse, Eating Inn, Hardy’s House, Old English Inns and Loch Fyne. In total we operate over 2,400 pubs and restaurants, two breweries (Bury St Edmunds and Dunbar) and a number of regional depots. Our head office is in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, and we have regional offices in Scotland.
Our approach to responsible retailing
At Greene King, we strive to ensure that alcohol produced or sold by us is consumed responsibly.
All of our pubs operate Challenge 21 and, if you are lucky enough to appear under 21, you can expect to be asked to prove your age.
Pubs like ours turn away over one million customers each month who, when challenged, are unable to provide acceptable proof of age, which shows just how seriously we take our responsibility to enforce the law and prevent underage sales.
Our promotional materials carry clear and concise messages encouraging sensible drinking and all our bottles, cans and outer packaging for all our beers specify the number of units of alcohol in them. We have also been an active participant in the Government's consultation on drinks labelling.
We support the Government’s anti-drink drive Christmas campaigns such as the Driver Friendly campaign in 2010 during which we offered free soft drinks to drivers in our Hungry Horse chain and tenanted pubs.
Best Bar None
We support initiatives such as Best Bar None, the Home Office endorsed award scheme that accredits licensed premises for operating their business in an exemplary manner. In areas where the scheme operates we have now have 20 pubs with this accreditation.
Licensing in Scotland
In Scotland, as part of the Licensing Act 2005, each region is required to establish a licensing forum of relevant stakeholders (police, community councils, licensing standards officers and trade representatives). Our Scottish business, Belhaven, is represented in each of the licensing forums where they hold a premises licence and see this as an important factor in supporting each of the licensing objectives.
BID schemes
Greene King was instrumental in setting up the Nottingham Business Improvement District (BID) and to this day, remains an active member. The BID, the only one nationally that is solely for the licensed economy, aims to improve safety in the trading environment of, access to and the promotion of the core of Nottingham over and above the services already being provided by the city.