Urban foxes – as well as ferrets, dogs, ducks rats and parrots

First will be the Fox & Ferret, set to open later this month following the renovation of the former Amigo’s Bar and Restaurant in Hamilton. The Dog & Duck will launch soon thereafter in Cambuslang, followed by the Rat & Parrot in Bishopbriggs.

The company owns or operates 12 licensed premises and owner Graham Sutherland said it intends to broaden to other areas through acquisition.

“We will start looking further afield at the turn of the year,” he said. “There are great deals to be had right now. That is why we are out in the market.”

These latest acquisitions are being financed through a combination of support from breweries and profits from Urban Pub’s existing estate, which will generate turnover of about £3.4 million this year. Sutherland’s strategy is to take the new brands into provincial towns where major operators are under-represented.

Well-publicised hardships across the licensed on-trade have in some cases pushed rent levels to one-third of what they were a few years ago, while a general lack of work for tradesmen means that refurbishment costs can be kept under control. With “numerous” buying opportunities coming across his desk every week, Sutherland said now was an ideal time to expand via strategic and carefully chosen acquisitions.

“There are a lot of challenges out there, but we want to be pro-active,” he said. “It is about changing what you do. It is not the first time in my lifetime in this industry that we have had hard times.”

Sutherland was raised in a family that worked in the licensed trade – at one time they owned the Drum & Monkey in Glasgow’s St Vincent Street.

Urban Pub has 75 employees and each of the three new establishments will have between 15 and 20 full and part-time staff.