Meet the Local Heroes Team

Local Heroes Pub Group

Meet the Local Heroes Team

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Bill Overin, Managing Director

Andy Mullin, Commercil Director

Ian Perrett - Property Consultant

Bill Overin and Andy Mullin met when Bill joined Century Inns to spearhead the move into Pub retailing. Andy was then National Account Manager for Bass Brewers with responsibility for Century Inns, amongst others.

Given their shared backgrounds and experiences within high street and public house retailing, it was no surprise that they quickly established a relationship based on a common understanding of the key retail imperatives. When Bill looked to expand the Century Inns retail division in January 1996, he invited Andy to join him to take over the day to day running of the Managed Houses.

Both Bill and Andy have a clear philosophy that the pub industry is all about people, and the management of the relationship and interaction between staff and customers. They pride themselves on their man management skills, which has contributed to consistent achievement of targeted results throughout their careers.

Bill Overin

Bill joined the Brewing and Licensed Retailing Industry in 1981 as Employee Relations Manager with J W Cameron’s, Brewers of Hartlepool. In April 1987 he was appointed General Manager of Melbourne Brewing Co. and managed the integration of this aquisition.

He was appointed to the Board of Cameron Inns in January 1989 as Tenanted Trade Director, and following a take over by Brent Walker continued in this role with responsibility for c.500 pubs. Bill was a key member of the team responsible for the appraisal of large packages of pubs for acquisition; one of these became the 750th pub purchase leading to the creation of Pubmaster in 1992.

At Pubmaster Bill was the Northern Tenancy Director responsible for c.1000. He was promoted to Retail Operations Director responsible for c.120 managed outlets achieving sales of £20.6m and operating profit of £3.87m in 1993/4.

In November 1994 Bill joined Century Inns to develop a managed retail business. As a member of the Executive Management team he was involved with all strategic and operational decisions and was a key member of the team which floated the company on the stockmarket. Bill left Century Inns to form Local Heroes following the acquisition by Enterprise in 1999.

Ian Perrett - Property Consultant

Ian started his career in Property after a four-year period of working in the UK and abroad in various catering and hotel and holiday rep jobs. After a year at Norfolk County Council an opportunity arose to enter the Pub Industry at Ansells in Birmingham where he joined the team as completing the newly introduced Vanguard Leases in addition to completing rental valuations and general estate Management work.After half of Ansells pubs were transferred to Pubmaster, Ian left to take a temporary contract working in Newcastle for Northern Electric dealing with all Property related matters such as valuations, disposals, acquisitions on land, industrial, retail, office and development sites.In 1993 Ian joined the newly formed Century Inns as Estates Manager. This involved dealing with all the unlicensed property, development sites, acquisitions and general Estates issues. Whilst in this position the company grew to 500 pubs and floated on the stock market which all proved to be invaluable experience in a still small company and where Ian first met Bill and Andy. In 1996 Ian was promoted to Acquisitions Manager to acquire sited for both tenancy and retail purposes. In 1999 Enterprise Inns acquired Century Inns and in conjunction with four other former Directors and staff of Century Inns, Ian became one of the founding Directors of 'New Century Inns' as Property Director then Chief Operating Officer. Ian purchased 48 freehold pubs over the next five years responsible for the finding, acquiring, letting, operations and rent & volume growth.

The Company grew from nothing to creating a turnover of c.5m and creating c.10m of shareholder value. Ian sold his shared in New Century Inns in 2004. Since then he has formed his own company offering advice on all property related matters to pub companies. In addition he has formed a small pub company with 2 leasehold pubs jointly with Bill and Andy, which will shortly merge with Local Heroes. Once the merger is complete, Ian will become a Director and Shareholder in Local Heroes Pub Company.

Andy Mullin

Andy became associated with the Licensed Trade whilst working as a Financial Management Consultant with Anglo Estates Ltd in 1988. Andy joined Bass Brewers as Area Sales Manager (Free Trade) in 1991, with responsibility for Lincolnshire and North Nottinghamshire. Following 2 year successful volume and profit growth, he joined Bass Taverns in 1993 as Retail Operations Manager and successfully managed districts of 25 pubs, including Central Birmingham and Coventry. The annual turnover of these estates was c.12m.

In April 1995, Andy moved back to Bass Brewers as National Sales Manager for Retail Groups North, with clients including Century Inns, Boddington Pub Company and Mercury Taverns. Andy joined Century Inns plc soon after their flotation in January 1996. With Century Inns, Andy held the position of Retail Business Development Manager, where together with Bill Overin he implemented the retail strategic plan and delivered profitable management of retail houses.

Following the acquisition of the Pubmaster outlets, Andy was asked to set up a Marketing Department for the Company as Brand Development and Marketing Manager. A great deal of work was put into the research and delivery of the Brand Template for the Tap & Spile chain, as well as delivering the retail trade marketing support. As Retail Development Manager, Andy was been able to implement many of the trading recommendations that resulted from the brand development work.

Keith Thomas - Financial Advisor

Keith Thomas FCA formed Keith Thomas Associates many years ago in Hartlepool after working for KPMG. His Company specialised in accounting, tax, audit and strategic business advice to the leisure and entertainment industries.

Keith has semi-retired from the partnership and now fulfils the role of a Finance Director for Local Heroes. Keith is well-known to Local Heroes having been the accountant to the Company since it's inception.