Who owns every big UK pub company: the lookup list, with the source for each
The UK’s biggest pub company, Stonegate, belongs to the private equity firm TDR Capital. Star Pubs belongs to Heineken, and Greene King to the Hong Kong group CK Asset Holdings. Mitchells & Butlers, which runs Harvester and Ember Inns, is listed but 57% controlled by one holding company. Punch belongs to Fortress, and Admiral Taverns to Proprium. Most pubs with a local name over the door trace back to one of these. The full list of eleven is below, each with the filing or announcement it comes from. Checked 16 September 2026.
The list
| Pub company | Owned by | What kind of owner | Size | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stonegate Group | TDR Capital | UK private equity | About 4,500 sites | TDR Capital's portfolio page |
| Star Pubs | Heineken UK, part of Heineken N.V. | Listed Dutch brewer | About 2,350 pubs (2026) | Companies House, Star Pubs Trading Limited |
| Greene King | CK Asset Holdings, the Hong Kong group founded by Li Ka-shing | Listed Hong Kong property and investment group | About 2,700 pubs, restaurants and hotels (CK Asset's own figure) | Companies House, Greene King Limited |
| Mitchells & Butlers | Odyzean Limited, holding 57.03% of the votes | Listed UK company with a controlling shareholder | — | Holding(s) in Company notice, 12 June 2026 |
| Marston's | Its shareholders; no controlling owner | Listed UK company | About 1,350 pubs | Marston's announcement, 8 July 2024 |
| Admiral Taverns | Proprium Capital Partners | Real estate private equity | 1,365 pubs (2025 financial year) | Morning Advertiser, 23 February 2026 |
| Punch Pubs & Co | Fortress Investment Group | US investment firm | About 1,300 pubs at the sale | Punch's own announcement |
| J D Wetherspoon | Its shareholders; founder Sir Tim Martin holds just under 25% | Listed UK company | About 800 pubs | Our Wetherspoons ownership article |
| Amber Taverns | Epiris, through its Fund III | UK private equity | 178 pubs at the sale | Insider Media |
| Shepherd Neame | A family brewery, with shares traded on the Aquis Stock Exchange | Family-controlled brewer, UK | Just under 300 pubs and hotels | Shepherd Neame's own site |
| Batemans | The Bateman family: Stuart and Jaclyn Bateman directly, and six trusts | Family brewer, UK | — | Our Batemans ownership article |
What the table does not fit
Stonegate Group. TDR set Stonegate up in 2010 with about 330 pubs bought from Mitchells & Butlers, then bought Ei Group (the former Enterprise Inns) in 2020, which made Stonegate the UK's largest pub company. The top company is registered in the Cayman Islands.
Star Pubs. Heineken UK has controlled Star Pubs Trading Limited since 29 August 2017; before that the company belonged to Punch Taverns. So a pub that says Star Pubs over the door is tied to Heineken.
Greene King. The register shows CK Noble (UK) Limited in control since 30 October 2019, itself controlled by CK Steel (UK) Limited. CK Asset Holdings bought Greene King in 2019. Greene King also brews Greene King IPA and Abbot Ale; in May 2026 it agreed to sell the Old Speckled Hen beers to Damm UK. In March 2026 it said it planned to sell about 150 managed pubs and turn another 150 into tenanted or franchised pubs.
Mitchells & Butlers. Odyzean is registered in the British Virgin Islands. The notice names Piedmont Inc., Elpida Group Limited and Smoothfield Holding Ltd as the companies it controls through; it does not name the people behind them, so neither do we.
Marston's. Marston's sold its last 40% of the brewing business to Carlsberg in July 2024, so it no longer brews. Beer sold as Marston's now comes from Carlsberg, while the pubs belong to Marston's PLC.
Admiral Taverns. Admiral runs community, mostly drink-led pubs, and has been buying: 37 pubs from Fuller's and 18 from Marston's in 2024, and 21 from RedCat Hospitality in 2025.
Punch Pubs & Co. Fortress bought all of Punch from Patron Capital in December 2021. Companies House shows Patron's control of Punch Pubs & Co Group Limited ending on 15 December 2021.
J D Wetherspoon. Unlike most names here, Wetherspoon runs every one of its pubs itself; it doesn't lease them to tenants.
Amber Taverns. Epiris bought Amber in 2024. Amber was founded in 2005 by its chief executive, James Baer, and runs freehold, drink-led pubs, mostly in the North, the Midlands, Scotland and Wales.
Shepherd Neame. Founded in 1698 in Faversham, Kent. Its pubs are mostly in Kent, London and the South East.
The pub brand on the sign, and who is behind it
Many pub companies trade under brand names that don’t mention the company. These are the ones you are most likely to see:
- Slug and Lettuce, Be At One, Craft Union: Stonegate Group
- Hungry Horse, Chef & Brewer, Farmhouse Inns, Flaming Grill: Greene King
- Harvester, Ember Inns, Vintage Inns: Mitchells & Butlers
- Star Pubs: Heineken
A pub with no brand at all can still belong to a pub company. Many are leased or tenanted: a local licensee runs the pub, but the pub company owns the building and often decides which beer is sold. That is why a pub can feel independent and still appear in this list.
Brewers are not all the same kind of owner
Heineken and Greene King both brew beer and own pubs, but they are very different from a family brewer such as Batemans or Shepherd Neame. The family brewers have no outside controlling investor, and their pubs mostly sell their own beer. For some drinkers that is the next best thing to a free house, and our guide to Lincoln pubs that no pub company owns lists brewery pubs separately for that reason.
What is missing, and why
Fuller’s and Young’s are listed pub companies with long family histories, but we could not read their investor pages to check how much control the families keep, so they are left out for now. Samuel Smith’s is a private Yorkshire brewery with its own pubs; we have not read a filing for it yet. Loungers, which runs Lounge and Cosy Club and was bought by Fortress in February 2025, is a café-bar group rather than a pub company.
“Every big” means the pub companies with the largest UK estates that we could verify, plus two family brewers for contrast. If you think one is missing, tell us which and we will trace it.
How this was checked
Every row was checked on 16 September 2026. Where a UK company exists and is not listed, the owner comes from its persons-with-significant-control entry at Companies House, followed up a level where the controller is itself a company. For listed companies, which are exempt from that register, it comes from the company’s own announcements. Otherwise it comes from the owner’s own announcement or a named trade report of it. Two rows are answered by Highstreett’s own “who owns” articles, linked in the table. Pub counts are rounded and move every year.
For coffee, the same lookup exists: who owns every big UK coffee chain.