Foundation Inns put two of its six pubs up for sale

Despite revealing a rise in annual turnover of almost 24 per cent, pub owner Foundation Inns is planning to sell two of its six pubs.

The company, which was set up in 2007, reported a turnover of £2.6 million for the year to 27 March 2010, while it made a pre-tax loss of almost £540,000, down from £1.75 million in the previous year.

However, these losses were recorded during a period when some of the firm's pubs were not trading - the Village in Walthamstow Village was being redeveloped and reopened in July of last year, while the King's Head and Bell in Abingdon, acquired in 2008, was reopened in November 2009.

The two pubs now up for sale are the Glass House in Lincoln – the chain's only leasehold pub- which 'struggled to perform in the face of increased local 'price driven' competition,' and the freehold White Horse in Chelmsford, which will be on the market for around £400,000.

Foundation Inns said that its board was 'continually reviewing all possibilities for the future,' although the firm as a whole cannot be sold without compromising the tax reliefs it benefits from until November this year at the earliest, as it was backed by the Government's Enterprise Investment Scheme.