Who owns Stonegate?

The private equity firm TDR Capital does.

Stonegate is the biggest pub company in the UK, and it is owned by TDR Capital, a London-based private equity firm. TDR built Stonegate from scratch in 2010 and has controlled it ever since. It is not a listed company with ordinary shareholders, it is not a family brewer, and the company at the very top of the structure is registered in the Cayman Islands rather than the UK.

That matters because a Stonegate pub rarely says Stonegate over the door. The group trades under brand names, and many of its pubs carry no group branding at all.

What does the register show?

The main UK operating company is Stonegate Pub Company Limited. On Companies House it is a UK establishment of an overseas company, registered as UK establishment BR014816 on 20 August 2010, with the overseas company under number FC029833 and a registered office at 3 Monkspath Hall Road, Solihull.

That "UK establishment of an overseas company" label is the important detail. A normal UK company files a register of people with significant control that names whoever holds more than 25 percent. A UK establishment of an overseas company does not, because the company itself is incorporated abroad. So the public UK register tells you the branch exists and where it trades, but it does not walk you up to a named individual owner the way an ordinary company’s PSC page does.

Where the UK register stops, the owner’s own account takes over. TDR Capital lists Stonegate in its portfolio, and the fund that holds Stonegate is managed by TDR Capital LLP. Reporting on the group consistently describes the top holding company as registered in George Town, in the Cayman Islands.

Who is TDR Capital?

TDR Capital is a private equity firm based in London. Private equity firms raise money from outside investors, buy businesses, aim to grow their value and sell them on, so the owner above Stonegate is a fund with investors rather than a person or a brewing family.

TDR set Stonegate up in 2010 by buying 333 pubs from Mitchells & Butlers. It then grew the business by acquisition, and the big one came on 3 March 2020, when Stonegate bought Ei Group, the company that used to be called Enterprise Inns, for about £1.27 billion. That deal made Stonegate the largest pub operator in the UK.

For a drinker, the practical point is the same as with any private-equity-owned pub company: there is no local proprietor and no listed-company board above your local. The business answers to a fund, and the fund answers to its investors.

How big is Stonegate?

Very big. Stonegate has been reported at over 4,500 sites, and some counts put it closer to 4,800 managed, leased and tenanted pubs, which is why it is described as the UK’s largest pub company. The exact number moves, because the estate is being trimmed at the edges.

In 2025 Stonegate instructed the property firm Savills to sell 23 leasehold pubs, and the Telegraph reported that it had brought in the restructuring specialists AlixPartners to advise on up to 150 job cuts across its head office. Treat any single site figure as a dated snapshot rather than a live count.

Which pubs and bars are Stonegate?

More than the name suggests. Stonegate runs a long list of brands, and the ones you are most likely to walk past include Slug & Lettuce, Yates’s, Walkabout, Be At One, Popworld and the Craft Union Pub Company, alongside many pubs that carry no group branding at all.

Craft Union is worth calling out, because those are community locals that look like ordinary independent pubs. A pub with a plain local name and no chain signage can still be a Stonegate pub, run by an operator under the group, with the group owning the building and the supply.

Is Stonegate independent?

No. It is the largest pub company in the UK, owned by a private equity fund, with the company at the top of the structure registered offshore. That is about as far from a local independent as a pub business gets.

A Stonegate pub can still feel local, especially a Craft Union site with a tenant behind the bar who lives in the town. But the ownership sits with a fund, not with the person pulling the pint. If you want a pub that no pub company owns, our guide to Lincoln pubs not owned by a pubco names the freeholder of each one, and who owns every big UK pub company puts Stonegate next to Greene King, Heineken’s Star Pubs, Punch and the rest.

Questions people ask

Is Stonegate a private equity company?

Stonegate is a pub company, and it is owned by one. The pub business is Stonegate Pub Company Limited; the owner above it is TDR Capital, a private equity firm, which has controlled Stonegate since it created it in 2010.

Who owns Slug & Lettuce, Yates’s and Walkabout?

All three are Stonegate brands, so they trace up to TDR Capital. Be At One, Popworld and Craft Union are Stonegate as well.

Where is Stonegate registered?

The UK operating company, Stonegate Pub Company Limited, is on Companies House as a UK establishment of an overseas company, based in Solihull. The company at the top of the group is registered in the Cayman Islands.

Is a Craft Union pub independent?

No. Craft Union is part of Stonegate. The pub may have a local name and a local operator, but the group owns it, so it is not an independent free house.

Last checked 18 September 2026. This article uses the Companies House record for Stonegate Pub Company Limited (UK establishment BR014816, overseas company FC029833), TDR Capital’s own portfolio page, Stonegate’s reported estate size and 2025 restructuring, and the widely reported history of the 2010 Mitchells & Butlers purchase and the March 2020 Ei Group acquisition. What is not claimed: the ultimate individual owners behind the Cayman-registered company, which the UK register does not show, and an exact current pub count, which changes. Ownership structures and estate sizes change, so if you spot something that needs correcting, email Highstreett and we will review it.