Former owner jumps at opportunity to buy back Friendly Inn

Former owner jumps at opportunity to buy back Friendly Inn
Larry SchlesingerDecember 8, 2020

?The chance to buy back the 1890s-built Friendly Inn Hotel in Kangaroo Valley in the NSW Southern Highlands proved irresistible for publican Peter Thompson, who snapped it up for $2.01 million at auction over the weekend. 

It last sold for $3.367 million in August 2005 and has been in receivership since April 2011. It sold for $950,000 in 1991, according to RP Data. 

The property, located at 159 Moss Vale Road, Kangaroo Valley and measuring 14,440 square metres, was marketed by Joel Fisher, Glenn Price, Greg Haines and Dugald Parsons from CBRE Hotel on behalf of receivers PKF Chartered. 

It was previously owned by Double Bay finance broker Adam Tilley and auction house owners James Barnier and Stuart Fox. 

Thompson owned the property in the 1980s and is currently the owner of another heritage pub, the Royal in Adelong, NSW, dating back to 1868. 

The hotel includes a public bar, TAB terminal, ATM, a gaming lounge with nine gaming machines, a separate bistro with seating for 50 people, a lounge seating 40, a full commercial kitchen, outdoor beer garden, a first-floor three-bedroom manager’s residence and a walk-in bottle shop. 

Revenue generated by the hotel is “distinctly seasonal”, with quiet months between April and June. 

In the three months to June 2011, the hotel generated revenue of $380,000, with more than $195,000 coming from the bar and bottle store and $A152,000 from food sales. 

Food sales are most profitable (gross profit of 61%), with alcohol sales generating gross profit of more than 50%. 

Over the three-month period, the nine poker machines brought in revenue of about $29,000. 

Profit for the three-month period after all expenses and wages was $12,000. 

The Thompson family also owned the Great Southern Hotel in nearby Berry, which they sold in 2007 after a decade of ownership.

Larry Schlesinger

Larry Schlesinger was a property writer at Property Observer

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