c. 1997 founder wolverhampton & dudley headquarters 500 capability green luton lu1 3ls . area served england and wales products 23 student themed pubs owner stonegate pub company 2013 wolverhampton & dudley c. 1997 2001 website stonegate pub company varsity is a student focused pub chain operating in the united kingdom . the name originates from annual university sports competitions . contents 1 history 2 ownership 2.1 wolverhampton & dudley 2.2 barracuda group 2.3 the stonegate pub company 3 operation 4 estate 4.1 north west england 4.2 north east england 4.3 yorkshire and the humber 4.4 east midlands 4.5 west midlands 4.6 south west england 4.7 south east england 4.8 wales 5 references 6 external links 6.1 news items history edit the chain began in the mid 1990s . its main competitor was scream pubs . varsity was more sports orientated than it s a scream . varsity wolverhampton the first varsity bar in the chain shut its doors in june 2012 after the university of wolverhampton made a successful bid to the struggling barracuda group to purchase the building . ownership edit wolverhampton & dudley edit varsity was founded by wolverhampton & dudley . barracuda group edit the barracuda group was formed in july 2000 by ppm ventures a private equity company that became silverfleet capital . in september 2001 barracuda group bought fifty pubs from wolverhampton & dudley for 37.25 million which included the 22 pubs of the varsity chain . 1 in june 2005 the barracuda group was sold for 262 million to charterhouse capital partners . in august 2006 there were 36 varsity bars . 2 a former varsity at derry s cross in plymouth before its closure in 2013 in october 2012 barracuda was renamed the bramwell pub company . 3 the stonegate pub company edit in october 2013 the bramwell pub company went into administration . the stonegate pub company bought 78 of the company s pubs including the varsities in lincoln and coventry . 4 operation edit it operates the v card one of the first loyalty cards which allows a cheaper price for some drinks and allows better offers on some of the food deals . 5 the website is now conducted all through facebook . it serves food most of the day concentrating on bowls of chips with dips and a range of hot baguettes with chips . estate edit north west england edit longsight manchester near the elizabeth gaskell campus of manchester metropolitan university north east england edit sunderland near the university of sunderland off the a1231 6 varsity in leeds yorkshire and the humber edit huddersfield leeds sheffield on west street on the supertram near the university of sheffield science and engineering departments 7 8 east midlands edit leicester two on friar lane in the city centre and london road a6 towards the university of leicester lincoln 9 loughborough varsity in wolverhampton west midlands edit warwick off the a429 next to the warwick medical school at gibbet hill 10 wolverhampton at the university of wolverhampton south west england edit gloucester varsity in southampton south east england edit southampton on london road southend on sea 11 12 wales edit aberystwyth bangor near bangor university cardiff near cardiff university 13 roath cardiff off the a469 next to the railway rhymney line swansea references edit caterer search varsity bars room hire http www.bighospitality.co.uk business barracuda restructures becomes bramwell pub co http thepublicansguide.com 8 v cards sunderland nightlife sheffield pub guide pub explorer sheffield lincoln pub explorer warwick pub explorer southend pub rooms southend cardiff pubs external links edit barracuda group news items edit punch up outside swansea pub in january 2011 retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title varsity bar & oldid 720360127 categories pub chainscompanies based in buckinghamshirewycombeuniversities in the united kingdom navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 15 may 2016 at 11 13 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view