When Simon and Sharon Colgan met in Harrogate’s Blues Bar, they had little idea that one day they would not only own the place but also a string of other venues in the town and beyond.

The couple, who this week announced they were taking on their 10th venture by acquiring Prego café in Harrogate, have become leading players on the local hospitality scene.

Their empire has expanded into Knaresborough, Wakefield, Otley, Leeds and York over the last quarter of a century.

At a time when many pubs and bars have struggled, they seem to have found a formula for pulling in punters. But, like their initial encounter, which occurred when Simon was the manager at the Blues Bar and Sharon was a customer, it’s sometimes happened more by chance than design. 

It started shortly after they met, when the opportunity arose to buy the Blues Bar on Montpellier Parade. The lure proved too strong so they invested their life savings and began building the venue’s reputation for live music.

Then in 2004 came the chance to run the World’s End in Knaresborough on behalf of Punch Taverns. Between them, the couple had eight children from previous marriages, so it was a huge financial decision.

Sharon recalls:

The World’s End, at the junction of Bond End and Waterside, could hardly be better located for passing trade and they massively increased meal sales. When they were given the opportunity to buy the freehold in 2007, they jumped at the chance.

Making the second venture work gave them the confidence to look elsewhere. “That was the key one because once you have got two you know you can do three," says Sharon.

The Duck and Drake in Leeds, where Sharon used to sing in a blues band, was next. She recalls: “I’d seen how shabbily it was run and always said if the chance to buy it ever came up then we had to take it.”

The Grove Inn in Leeds, which has the longest standing folk club in England, followed and then in 2017 came their second Harrogate venture — Empress on the Stray. She says: “It was going to be turned into a Tesco and we couldn’t have that. We gave it a big refurbishment.”

Transforming the Last Post

The Last Post on Cold Bath Road became their third Harrogate pub. It is unrecognisable from the somewhat dinghy place it had become, both inside and out. The huge wall mural outside has become one of the features of Cold Bath Road.

The Colgans always resisted the lure of York — until the Black Horse at Monkgate came on the market.

Sharon says:

Shortly afterwards, while “heavily induced in alcohol” on holiday in Spain, as Sharon puts it, they noticed an advert for the Black Rock pub at Wakefield and immediately fired off a somewhat drunken and extremely brief expression of interest. By now they were so well known in the local hospitality trade that rather than bin it, the person who received it recognised their names and got in touch. A deal was struck.

Since then, The Junction at Otley has joined their stable and now they plan to transform Prego into a jazz café and wine bar. Oh, and they are also in the process of taking on the Royal Oak at Copmanthorpe, York, where Simon’s brother fancies the challenge.

What’s the secret to their success? Sharon says many businesses under-estimate how tired their pubs become. They see them so regularly they lose the perspective of a fresh pair of eyes and don’t realise staleness is setting in. Their approach is to invest heavily at the beginning to give a fresh new look and then adapt to the market. “They are all run individually but there’s a formula we have that we work to," says Sharon.

Like many businesses, they say staffing has been the biggest challenge as they’ve grown. They now employ about 120 people, including those at Prego, who have transferred over.

Neither Simon nor Sharon is originally from Harrogate. He hails from Bridlington on the east coast while she grew up in Wallsey on Wirral. “We met in the middle,” she says. But they have left their stamp not only on their adopted town but on the wider Yorkshire hospitality scene.