BREWERY Thwaites will renovate 70 pubs this year and buy new properties in the south in a bid to reverse a sales slump.

New chief executive Rick Bailey has laid out his strategy as the Blackburn company grapples with the decline of pubs, competition from cheaper lagers and rising alcohol duty.

Mr Bailey’s masterplan includes Thwaites’ new Inns of Character – high-class pubs that serve food and may have rooms.

But existing properties will be refurbished at a rate of 70 a year and there will be an aggressive push into the south of England and more affluent areas.

Mr Bailey said: “We will continue to buy pubs for growth, and we will look at where people have disposable income and where people want to go to the pub.

“It is very difficult to buy where people don’t have money to spend.

“So we are very careful about where we buy because the market is in a difficult position.”

Mr Bailey said the newly-acquired Roaches Lock in Mossley, near Oldham, was an example of the type of property Thwaites would look to buy.

The former strategy director replaced Peter Morris earlier this year at at the helm of Thwaites, which owns 350 tenanted pubs, most of them in the North West.

Last year, turnover slumped from 2009’s £158.5million to £135.2million, although bosses blamed it on exceptional events.

The Inns of Character, such as the Millstone at Mellor, is due to grow to a 30-strong portfolio by 2015.

The firm also plans to increase the number of supermarkets stocking its beer.