Hospitality entrepreneur Michael Thiele will walk away from 11 years of building up a 17-strong pub chain, the Open Door Pub Co, about $54 million richer after selling the leasehold venues to the expansionary Dixon Hospitality Group.
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Mr Thiele founded the Australian-themed "Walkabout" pubs in Britain before returning to Melbourne to acquire a portfolio of 41 Victorian hotels – 24 of them managed and 17 subleased – from Lion Nathan in 2004.
The next 10 years were spent selling off subleases and non-performing hotels and purchasing new venues until the Open Door Pub Co was left with the leasehold to 15 of Melbourne's best known watering holes including the Perseverance, Geebung Polo Club and Imperial Hotel, as well as two hotel/bars in Sydney Airport.
The deal will make Dixon Hospitality, which is led by Michael Dixon, the 30-year old son of outgoing Spotless chief executive Bruce Dixon, the largest non-gaming pub group in Australia.
Dixon Hospitality is building towards a potential $300 million ASX listing early next year in a rapid expansion.
It has grown from one to 24 venues in less than two years.
Its most recent purchase, the iconic South Melbourne gastropub O'Connell's, was settled last week. The group is in due diligence on another well-known venue in Sydney's Bondi.
It still has some way to expand before a public listing that will be led by investment house Evans & Partners.
"Eighteen months ago, we only had the Wayside Inn Hotel. We're now looking for around 32 to 40 hotels for an IPO," Mr Dixon said.
The next six months would be an exciting time for the group as it moved up the eastern seaboard, focusing on purchases in Sydney and Brisbane, he said.
Open Door's non-gaming hotels with the emphasis on quality food and beverage offerings were prime targets for Dixon Hospitality.
It is trying to carve a niche outside run-of-the-mill gaming pubs.
The "ultimate goal" was to introduce a quality food concept and change the Sydney mindset of gaming-focused pubs.
"Not every pub has to have gaming," he said.
A rival company, Redcape Hotel Group, is also considering a float of its gaming-focused portfolio, with the aid of banks UBS and JPMorgan.
Mr Thiele said Open Door was sold bundled with the events arm, Melbourne Venue Company, and an efficient backend administration system that could easily be scaled up.
Asked if he regretted selling the pubs, Mr Thiele said: "You get attached to them."
What will he do next?
"I'll take a long holiday and think about it."
