Greenall's Brewery was founded by Thomas Greenall in 1762. Initially based in
St Helens, the company established a second brewery at
Wilderspool, south of
Warrington in 1787. It bought the Groves & Whitnall Brewery in
Salford in 1961, Shipstone's Brewery in
Nottingham in 1978 and Davenport's Brewery in
Birmingham in 1986. For much of the 20th century, the company traded as Greenall Whitley & Co Limited. The company ceased brewing in 1991 to concentrate on running
pubs and
hotels. In 1999, the tenanted wing of the Greenall's operation was sold to the Japanese bank, Nomura for £370 million and the main Greenall's operation, involving 770 pubs and 69 budget lodges, was sold to
Scottish and Newcastle for £1.1 billion. Greenalls started to focus its resources on its De Vere and Village Leisure hotel branding at that time. The Greenall family connection remained as
Lord Daresbury, the descendant of the original founder, remained the non-executive
chairman. This tie was severed in 2006 when Daresbury stepped down from the post and much of the family's interest was sold. In 2006, the business, by then known as De Vere Group, was acquired by The Alternative Hotels Group plc, a joint venture between
HBOS and eight investors led by Richard Balfour-Lynn, for £745.5 million. The Alternative Hotels Group plc renamed itself De Vere Group in 2010. De Vere Group sold
Greenall's Gin for £7 million in a private equity-backed
management buyout in 2011. Balfour-Lynn also stood down as chief executive in 2011. In March 2014, private equity firm
Starwood Capital Group acquired the business, by then known as De Vere Venues, and integrated it into
Principal Hayley Group which it already owned. In November 2014,
Village Urban Resorts were sold to Denver-based private equity firm KSL Capital Partners for £485 million. In November 2016, Principal Hayley Group went through a major rebranding and re-investment project; the group became known as the
Principal Hotel Company and split their portfolio between two groups of hotels: De Vere (a group of modern country estate hotels) and Principal (a group of luxury city hotels). ==Operations==