I was reading the evening express today and I came across this article its not on there website so I will right it out word by word. It on page 12 Landlords' fears over pub plans Landlords in the North-east have been left with an uncertain future after a pub giant announced it was selling off a third of its buildings. Punch taverns - which owns 23 pubs in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire - has announced it is trying to offload more than 2000 of its bars across the UK. No announcement has been made on which pubs could be involved and the firm insisted it did not mean they would be shutting. Kevin Coutts, licensee at the Scotia Bar, said ''I keep in touch with other Punch publicans and for many of them it will be a worring time'' A Punch spokeswoman said: ''This is not about pub closures, it is about securing the future of our pub estate and our pubs. We will be focusing on a core leased estate of around 3000 high-quality pubs.''