RE: S&NPC offers new leases on 15 pubs

Really? What? S&N were advertising that they spent £10.5million a year on their estate ten years ago.

When a company is responsible for a portfolio of thousands of pubs which are owned by other people and run by other people what is a 'core estate'?

Conventionally what makes entrepreneurs special is that they are considered to have a very particular vision of their own. Here though, to paraphrase: 'S&N has the identified the market, the target consumer groups, consumer occasions and the right offer for each of OUR pubs, what WE now require is FUNDED lessees with drive, determination and passion to succeed, to help translate OUR vision in to reality".

Or: 'WE need people with THEIR OWN CASH to invest in OUR business to further their careers as unpaid managers of OUR pubs with target audiences WE already identified for them'.