Operator of Cains Brewery Village in Liverpool and a number of bars and hotels in Southport, Mikhail Hotel & Leisure Group, reports 50% rise in revenues to £17.1m. Tony McDonough reports

Mikhail Hotel & Leisure Group operates Cains Brewery Village and other venues

Mikhail Hotel & Leisure Group is reporting a significant rise in annual revenues for the second year running.

Registered in Southport but with its main operational base in Liverpool, Mikhail operates more than 10 bars and hotels across Liverpool city region with a particular focus on Southport town centre where it has six venues.

Majority owned by founder Andrew Mikhail and his wife Vicky Mikhail, the group’s Liverpool portfolio includes Cains Brewery and one of the city centre’s best known traditional pubs, Doctor Duncan’s close to St George’s Hall.

Accounts for the 12 months to December 31, 2023, just published on Companies House, reveal annual revenues of £17.1m which is 50% higher than the £11.4m reported for 2022. That was also a big rise from the £8.5m revenues in 2021.

Pre-tax profits for the year were broadly flat, totalling £806,073, marginally down on 2022. Dividends for the year were £83,917 with directors’ remuneration, including salaries and pensions, totalling £158,392. The group employs around 220 people.

Managing director, Rob Ashcroft said the rise in revenues can be attributed to 2023 being the first full year without any COVID restrictions. He said among the biggest cost pressures on the business are increasing supplier prices and the National Living Wage.

In an interview with LBN in January 2024, Andrew Mikhail explained how happy memories of coming to Southport when he was a child has led him to invest more than £10m in the coastal town.

A decade ago he paid £1.1m for the Bold Hotel and invested a further £1.6m to transform the historical venue’s fortunes. But he didn’t stop there. Dismayed by the decay he saw around Andrew started buying up other properties.

Now Mikhail Leisure Group is the owner and operator of six thriving leisure venues having invested around £10m in total. Such has been the impact, particularly on Lord Street, he has helped create an unofficial ‘Northern Quarter’.

“I bought the Bold Hotel around 10 years ago. When I bought that it was partly because it was somewhere I used to go with my mum and dad when I was a kid,” he said.

“At that time the whole other side of Lord Street in that section was boarded up. There now is Punch Tarmeys on the corner, the Lord Street Hotel and The Grand.

“Basically I just kept on chipping away. I started to buy these properties one by one. But I can’t say there was any overall plan or strategy to it. It was just that we were doing well so I just kept going.”

Other venues include the Lord Street Hotel, and Mavericks, an American-themed bar opened in 2023 in the former Pizza Express. But by far Mikhail’s most ambitious project yet is 100-year old The Grand, a former casino and now a bustling leisure venue.

Andrew relaunched The Grand in July 2022 with The Grand Brasserie and Chloe’s Piano Bar on the ground floor and The Princess Grace Suite on the first floor.

Rachel Fitzgerald, CEO of Southport BID with Andrew Mikhail of Mikhail Leisure Group

Mikhail also operates The Eccleston Arms in St Helens and further afield the business is opening a hotel on the shore of Lake Windermere in the Lake District. The Peninsula Hotel will open its doors following the revitalisation of the derelict Pearsall House.

Again, Andrew’s motivation was driven by childhood trips to the Lake District. He told Stand Up For Southport in December 2023: “I’ve been coming here since I was a young boy with my parents and have amazing memories throughout the years.

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“As I came into my late teens I ended up buying a little boat to bring on Lake Windermere with my friends and it feels a little surreal. It is something that has continued with our family as it grew and is a place very close to mine and my wife Vicky’s heart.

“To end up with something that we’ve been staring at for years I still pinch myself.”