So many pubs close every week these days it hardly registers as news – but Midland chain Marston’s is bucking the trend by building new ones from scratch.

The brewery and pub firm plans to open up to 60 new venues over the next two years – including one in Lichfield this week – as part of an ongoing drive to expand its food operations.

The Campaign for Real Ale recently claimed that 26 pubs a week are closing in the UK, as the traditional pint becomes a rarer commodity – and Marston’s are no exception, with plans to close 400 over the next two years.

However, Ed Hancock, director of property developments at Marston’s, said it remained confident in the pub, and would be building new ones to suit a changing consumer.

Scotland is a particular focus for Marston’s – the Wolverhampton-based firm had no operations north of the border two years ago and plans to open up to 50. He said: “We have a target to build between 55 and 60 pubs nationwide over the next two years.

“We are expanding into geographies where we aren’t represented at the moment. We are a Midlands company, and in Scotland we had no representation until very recently.

“We have opened three already, and we plan to open between 40 and 50 pubs in Scotland over the next five years. We see a real opportunity to expand geographically.”

Marston’s new pub in Lichfield, the Saxon Penny, follows recent openings in Walsall and Coventry.

The firm has a total of 2,400 pubs, and will have built 110 in 10 years under the current plan, with each employing between 40 and 60 members of staff.

To make each pub viable for the company they must have space for 180 covers and more than 50 car-parking spaces.

The average pub costs between £2 million and £2.5 million, and the firm would expect a 16 per cent return on that investment each year.

Mr Hancock added: “You can’t buy the product that we want to open from other operators. It is becoming more about eating out and new buildings mean we can cater for that and make sure we have enough car parking and garden.

“Don’t take from this that the pub is dead because it is not, but previously there was no Sky Television or Costa Coffee for the pub industry to deal with - it was traditional to go out for a pint in the pub.”

He continued: “We started building pubs in 2003 so we have now come to our 10th year and in that time we have built more than 100 pubs in the UK.

“We are quite unusual in the retail sector in that we build our own sites. We do everything from identifying the site in the first place to opening the doors at the end.

“We are strictly a freehold company. With the pubs we have opened, in our last revaluation 18 months ago we have added £117 million worth of value.

Marston’s has raised £150 million through annuity funds to fund the property drive.

Alongside building pubs, Mr Hancock’s department has built hotels for Whitbread and Costa Coffee and KFC outlets as part of a wider approach to development.

Mr Hancock said rivals Greene King and Mitchells & Butlers have started to operate similar operations following Marston’s lead but he believes the heavy debt loads carried by some of the firm’s rivals hold them back from similar innovation.