From the Stag in Salhouse, to Rackheath’s Green Man, Sole and Heel and Kerry’s bar in Norwich, Marcus Pearcey is building a hospitality empire - buying up businesses like a game of Norfolk Monopoly.

He now owns and operates 14 businesses across the county, with plans to buy at least “two or three businesses a year for the next 20 years”.

But who is Marcus Pearcey and how did he become one of Norfolk’s best known business owners?

Marcus Pearcey, at his Kerry's bar in Norwich's Queen Street (Image: Denise Bradley) TURNING POINT

Born in London, the 51-year-old moved to Norfolk as a teenager when his late father, Michael, went from working as a cruise ship butcher to a life offshore on an oil rig off the coast of Great Yarmouth.

After Michael retired, he and wife Toni bought and ran the Oaklands Hotel on Yarmouth Road, which Marcus later took over and still owns.

Michael passed away in February last year, aged 85, which his son said was the “turning point” in his life that accelerated his spree of buying up local businesses.

Marcus Pearcey, centre, with his late father Michael and his mother Toni (Image: Marcus Pearcey) “I suddenly realised I don’t want to stop because I love what I do,” he said, sat in one of the round booths upstairs at his Kerry’s bar in Norwich city centre.

“Dad retired too early. One of the advantages of running your own business is you dictate when you want to stop.

“I don’t want flash cars or villas abroad. I just want to keep reinvesting.”

Marcus Pearcey, sat in one of the booths upstairs at his Kerry’s bar in Queen Street, Norwich (Image: Denise Bradley) UNI LIFE AND THE LAUNDRETTE DJ

As a teenager he attended Norwich’s City College before returning to the capital to study........

© Norwich Evening News