Finding the right brewery to work with was key.

For new business owners Joel Kirk and Amy Owen, it wasn’t finding the perfect pub that persuaded them to take the leap into running their first site – it was finding the ideal brewery to work with.

According to Amy, who had previously worked as a pub manager, she and former estate agent Joel had been tentatively looking at pubs for around a year before she came across a social media post from Everards, which was to prove beneficial.

“Taking on a pub was a massive life decision for us and our kids, and it was important that whoever we spoke to handled it the right way. We didn’t have the best experience with a few of the breweries that we’d contacted.

“Then I saw a social media post from Everards and went through to the website. Literally, from reading the information on the website, the way the company came across, the ethos, we knew we were onto something.

"I had a first conversation with Dave Pawson from Everards and it was professional and he was genuinely interested in us. I’d not had that experience before,” recalls Amy.

“At that time, Everards didn’t have any pubs that were of interest to us, but we thought ‘they are the right brewery for us’, so we decided to wait for the right pub to come up. We chose Everards first rather than choose a pub first,” says Joel.

A few months later, they found their perfect pub – The Coach and Horses at Markfield. The couple, together with their sons, aged one and two, moved into the village venue in June 2024.

“When we stepped in here, we knew this was the place. We’d looked at a few pubs that were really beautiful, but for us, we were coming in as a family and we needed a pub that suited us,” says Joel.

“Here, things like the garden and the family-friendly atmosphere made us feel that we could see ourselves here for the long term.”