Mon 26th Nov 2018 - Urban Pubs and Bars acquires Salt Yard Group, eyes expansion of brand Urban Pubs and Bars acquires Salt Yard Group, eyes expansion of brand: Urban Pubs and Bars, led by Nick Pring and Malcolm Heap, has acquired Salt Yard Group for an undisclosed sum that will see its three central London restaurants – Salt Yard in Fitzrovia and Dehesa and Ember Yard, both in Soho – take the company’s estate to 19 venues. The restaurants will continue to specialise in high-quality Spanish and Italian dishes. Heap told Propel the Salt Yard restaurants would operate independently from the rest of the group. It would look to potentially add "two or three" sites in the next year or two but there would not be conversions from the existing estate. He added: “We have always been huge fans of Salt Yard Group and consistently blown away by the quality of the offer and teams. When the opportunity came along to take on the restaurants and their amazing teams, we didn’t think twice. All employees including head office will stay on to help us grow this fantastic group of restaurants, with our plan to invest and add a few more to the family over the coming years.” Salt Yard Group co-founder Sanja Moll added: “We are really pleased to hand over our much-loved restaurants to Malc and Nick. They are going to bring operational expertise as well as investment and take the group to the next level. We are excited for their future.” In August, the company exchanged contracts on The Opera Tavern in Covent Garden, a Shaftesbury leasehold site formerly run by Salt Yard Group. Earlier this month, Urban Pubs and Bars secured its 16th site – and first in the City of London. It will invest £1m in a 6,000 square foot venue in Watling Street.