Meanwhile Greene King announced in a trading update that like for like sales at its managed pubs had risen 4.7% in the 51 weeks to 24 April, with an increasing contribution from food sales.
It admitted that some of its managed pubs had struggled to match the sales boost from last year's football World Cup, as the rugby equivalent did not provide the same level of interest.
"Spoons has 70 pubs and 3000 employees north of the border and sales of well over £100 million, making it probably the biggest managed pub company in Scotland".
Wetherspoon is Scotland's largest managed pub chain with 75 outlets, employing 4,000 people.
Despite being the largest UK operator of managed pubs and restaurants, we have only 3% of this market and so there are significant opportunities for us to grow further.
Greene King has bought another four managed pubs from heavily endebted Punch Taverns, as the latter continues to trim away at its borrowings.
It has also announced the purchase of eight freehold, managed pubs from Punch Taverns, up 0.5p at 83.6p, for £15.9m.
By demerging its managed pubs from its leased estate, Punch hopes to finally get to grips with the £3bn debt pile that has helped to destroy 95% of the company's value in the last four years.
On Wednesday, Spirit said its full-year pretax profit had grown by 11%, buoyed by strong growth in its core managed pubs division – run by landlords who work for the pub group.
The City predicts the UK's biggest managed pubs group will report pre-tax profits up 4.2 per cent to £75m, as it spends on rebranding and new IT systems to support its £266m purchase of rival Orchid Group, which has 173 pubs, in June.
