'Changing of the guard' at pub group as Craig Power enters joint venture with Oscars Hotel Group for Pub Group hotels

New owner Craig Power has entered into a joint venture to run the multi-pub business alongside Oscars Hotel Group, which owns 31 venues state-wide. Each party own half the business.

Mr Power said the business is well-placed for expansion and could snap up new hotels in the future.

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"With our partners it does give us scope to definitely develop some of our properties and take them into the future," he said.

"We do have plans ahead to ... also possibly purchase further assets or further businesses in town to grow the group."

Mr Power has worked at the hotel business for 25 years, and has run it for about a decade.

He formally takes over the company from Bevan and Joan Douglas, who founded the iconic venue the Pub, the group's first hotel, in 1989.

The company has expanded since then and now includes the Pub, the Southgate Inn, the Family Hotel, and its neighbour the Moonshiners Honky Tonk bar, the Good Companions, and Britten's Brewery.

He said formally taking the company over from the parents of wife Tierzah Douglas was like a "changing of the guard".

"It's exciting. With due respect I think we're excited for the times ahead," he said.

"We're very aware of who our customers are and who our staff are. And also we're respectful of our family that are moving on to follow other interests. For Tierzah and I, we're very excited to be taking over the family business on our own. But it's something that we've done and done for a long time."

It's not known how much the business, which employs over 300 people, is worth, but the sale was believed to be in the tens of millions of dollars.

Mr Power said the new arrangement would help save the company money through economies of scale, because Oscars has a greater ability to order in bulk.

He said the company was interested in buying hotels even outside Tamworth, like in smaller surrounding communities such as Kootingal, or Nundle.

"There might be opportunities that come along, that we would definitely have a look at outside of Tamworth, within northern NSW," he said.

"Never say never."

Mr Power has had a personal friendship of 20 years with Oscars Hotels owners Bill and Mario Gravanis.

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