Pubs pay off for Rich List family business

The group, founded by the late property pioneer Bernard Lewis in 1957, is now owned by his daughters Marnie Lewis-Millar and Shay Lewis-Thorp, who are worth about $851 million, according to the latest Financial Review Rich List.

Lewis family members sit on the board in director roles, but there is a separate management team.

Lewis Land Group chief executive Matthew McCarron said its pub portfolio had been a beneficiary of the pandemic because of working-from-home arrangements, and had experienced a pick-up in midweek trade across its three large-format pubs – two in Sydney’s outer suburbs and another on Brisbane’s outskirts.

“[The pandemic] has changed the way that we operate. We’ve put in place patron limits and in addition to beer on tap we have hand sanitiser on tap,” Mr McCarron said.

“But what we have found is that because people are working from home, our midweek trade across all of our venues has increased dramatically because they are looking for a place to go out to lunch.”

The group owns the Belvedere Hotel, also on Queensland’s Redcliffe Peninsula, The Fiddler Hotel in Sydney’s north-west Hills District and Camden Valley Inn in south-west Sydney.

“Clearly, location is a key driver,” Mr McCarron said.

“All three of those and Mon Komo are in high-growth areas, being Rouse Hill, south-west Sydney and the Redcliffe Peninsula. They are also all very outdoor focused and diverse in their offering.”

Mr McCarron said that while the property sector was going through an “unprecedented period”, he remained optimistic about the future knowing that property was fundamentally a cyclical business.

“We are a long-term investors, a second-generation family business and we buy assets to hold over the long term, and we think pubs will have a bright future,” he said.