Macdonald Henderson advises Kained Holdings on joint venture with Greene King

Kained Holdings was founded by Graham Suttle, Mo Clark and Scott Arnot in 2007 and operates nine outlets in Glasgow and Edinburgh.

A new company is to be formed with the three Kained directors on the board as well as Greene King executives John Forrest and Alan Dunn.

The first venue opened by the new company will be a 60-cover bar and restaurant in what was the former Drouthy Neebors in St Andrews.

In a similar vein to Kained’s established Glasgow venues The Finnieston and Porter & Rye, the St Andrews unit will have a focus on fresh, locally-sourced meat and seafood as well as quality drinks.

Mr Suttle described the new venture as “very much a dream project, where we’re able to produce our own liquid and serve all the best food we love within the company.”

He said: “It’s not the biggest unit in the world, but anyone that knows Drouthy’s knows it’s very similar to The Finniestion in that it’s got very low-slung ceilings and it’s not an overly generous space.

“But we’re doing our usual with it and making the most of it, the idea being we can deliver a very high-end restaurant alongside a first-class bar experience. The concept of the joint venture is about creativity and trying something new, with Greene King bringing its big business expertise to the exciting visions of innovative entrepreneurs.”

Mr Arnot commented: “As this was such an important deal for us at Kained, we really had to make sure the advisors we used were at the top of their game. The joint venture is new to both Greene King and Kained and therefore we had to think about each point in detail with time always being of the essence.

“Fraser was able to summarise complex points in a way that allowed us to make the right decisions without getting tied up in knots over the details.

“We’re really happy with the JV and look forward to working more with Macdonald Henderson in the future.”