Inn World Blog - the one stop portal for the Hospitality and licensed trade.
Dec 18

We are now, as Pub Landlords in a very strong position to turn the tables on the Pubcos and dictate to them about the way we want to run our pubs and allow us to get a fair share of the money our outlets make. We as Landlords have been squeezed for too long as the Pubco’s held all the cards, but things have changed…

No longer do they have the queue of people waiting to take on premises that are becoming available (which makes them very vunerable) but they are running to existing operators to try to bridge the gap as they try long and hard to find someone else to fill the vacancy. After Christmas and New Year they will also see a significant  number of pubs with “keys dropped through the door”, Landlords have had a rough year and many are waiting for the festive period income to enable them get out with damage limitation. The earning capability of these Pubco’s and survival of them will obviously fall on to our shoulders, as they do not have the influx of new blood and they are aware that a growing number of existing landlords are already looking to leave the sector for good if things dont change. We are already seeing little titbits from them which make virtually no difference from the strangle hold they have, but it demonstrates that they are starting to get jittery.

If as many landlords as possible got together as one voice and challenged the Pubco’s to bring about change they would have to listen and react, for example we pay full commercial rents for our pubs and still have to suffer a beer tie, they take the money from our machines without lifting a finger (even Mr Turpin had the decency to wear a mask) we have the right to a fair days pay for a fair days work and so on. if for instance, all pubs owned by these companies were to be closed by the landlords for just one day, how much would that hurt their income, yes it would also affect us aswell but they make much more money per day than we do from our pubs. They would be forced to play fair, renegotiate sensible rents etc, the module they work on with beer tie and the like is seriously outdated, the change is possible!!  The ways to it are endless another example, if we all en-masse decided to give notice of surrender of leases? I could go on.

I hope that many of you feel the same way and we get together in some way to safeguard the future of our businesses and the pub industry as a whole. I look forward to any feedback and dont let them keep you down, we do have an option at last. Please vote on the landlords United Poll so I can gauge support.

Many Thanks Malcolm

Posted in Pub Stuff | 1 Comment »
Nov 9

just before last years ban on smoking i INVESTED a large amount of money in a new smoking area , getting planning permission from the council , jumbo umbrellas , heaters , etc .   other pubs in my local area put up illegal bus shelters , or fully enclosed areas or just a fire bucket and chair in the street ( and allowing customers to drink on the street in a non drink zone ).
    great i thought the council will have to act , having had to listern to hours of preaching from the council and licencing officer at countless pub watch meetings about enforcment of the ban , fines ,etc , even to the point of being told landlords who failed to comply with the rules could have there licence reveued !
  but here we are a year on , and now im told the illegal shelters and areas are  ok because THE ARE IN THE SPRIT OF THE LAW  .
   has anyone else found this or is it just a local problem ?  

Posted in Pub Stuff | No Comments »
Oct 30

Anybody see the TV program about this idiot trying to start a new micro brewery and pub business…
What a good comedy show.When told that many pubs where closing he said, thats because those landlords didn’t know what they were doing and that they should go back to school.
I always thought this guy was a good actor at playing the fool on TV,apparently it isn’t acting at all,he naturally is an idiot.

Posted in Pub Stuff | No Comments »
Oct 26
Quoted from Morning_Advertiser
A tranche of 100 pubs, understood to belong to Admiral Taverns, has been put on to the market — many at massively reduced prices.

Are Admiral Taverns getting in quick before the bandwagon starts rolling, is this the reason the Government is doing nothing if they dropped the duty on beer or increased tax on the supermarkets the only people who would benefit would be the pub groups anyway.

This business model has to disappear,Is the best way to manage the industry, to let these big companies dominate hopefully small independents operators and just plain old pub landlords will emerge.  Or would this just be wishful thinking these are certainly scary times.

Posted in Pub Stuff | No Comments »
Sep 18

I would have thought TESCO would have been the biggest pub company of them all by now with all it’s buying power it must be waiting in the wings ready for some of the big pubco’s to falter and then move in for the kill.

If they can sell a pint of beer for 48p (Worked out 24 cans fosters £10 this works out at about 12 litres = 21.12pts - Morison’s advert this week). It makes you wonder what price they are buying in from the breweries. I know it is often said that they sell them as a loss leader but the volumes they sell I can’t believe they do it for little or no profit. If pubs could sell beer again at £1 a pint there wouldn’t be a problem.15 – 20 years ago they were selling the beer the same price as pubs. The big supermarkets are now treating the Breweries the same way as they did the farmers. This week they sell Carling at a knockdown price next week it is Carlsberg then Fosters and so on. How do you stop the spiral if you don’t agree to it you are out of the loop with a massive decrease in volumes.

So who are the Supermarkets, now out to get, they have sown up the Breweries so it must be the Pubco’s after all they are only property companies, they aren’t true representatives of our Pub culture, what is happening with all these Pubs closing are they getting flattened for new development? Still been sold for a profit no doubt, the only losers are the Pub lessees who have invested their life savings, who now want to get out but can’t so it begs the question are the government just going to stand back and do nothing? Perhaps remove some of the duty, because as VAT we aren’t getting value anymore.  

The longer they leave it; there will come a point of no return if that point hasn’t arrived already? These are very sad times. We know who not to vote for next time around but that is already a poor consolation for some of us.

Posted in Forum Posts | No Comments »
Sep 12

Beer Ads

Quoted Text

Britain’s beleaguered pub, bar and hotel operators are set for further misery following a decision by HSBC, the world’s third largest bank, to stop lending money or extending overdrafts to certain companies in the leisure sector, reports the Sunday Telegraph.

As if we didn’t know this already

Quoted Text

Robert Breare, the pub boss who once failed in a bid to buy regional brewer Wolverhampton & Dudley, is to receive £4.5m from HBOS in a rescue refinancing of his Noble House Pub Company, says the Sunday Times.

Quoted Text

The embattled pub operator Mitchells & Butlers is preparing to bring its biggest shareholder, the property tycoon Robert Tchenguiz, on to its board as it tries to rehabilitate itself in the eyes of investors after losing £390m in a failed property venture. M&B is understood to be in talks to appoint Tchenguiz, or one of his representatives, as a non-executive director, writes the Sunday Times.

Quoted Text

Bankers for Regent Inns, owner of the Australian-themed sports-bar chain Walkabout, are looking to appoint a corporate-restructuring specialist to evaluate the future of the struggling pub business, writes the Sunday Times.

Posted in Pub Stuff | 1 Comment »
Sep 8

All together now

Posted in Forum Posts | No Comments »
Aug 21

I was wondering after seeing somebody from over the pond advertising for “beer pumps” on a site recently what the position is regarding American Cask Beer,do they make it?If so do they sell it in Bars?Is there a demand for it.
Every cowboy movie I see always shows thirsty Cowpokes being served very frothy lager like beer.Just wondered…

Posted in Forum Posts | No Comments »
Aug 21

called for a cellar man the other day to fix my big cooler,i was told that some one would be out in 24 hours.my beer was warm and people stopped drinking.i rang them again and was told the call was in the system.Fxxk the system.somebody came out 6 hours later to tell me the cooler was knackered and that it would have to be changed…bollocks another wait.3 hours later someone else turns up with a new machine and tells me my beer will be cool in about 2hours.what happened to looking after the customer what a load of crap.These service companies think they are doing you a big favour just turning up and that you are less impotrtant than there silly bloody computer systems and crap. ifthere was someone local i could have rang i would have and told them to bugger off.am i angry yes am.

Posted in Forum Posts | 1 Comment »
Jun 26

Inn World has been banging it’s drum for a long time about pub groups and their real agendas.The current Enterprise Inns situation is a perfect example and vindicates what we have been saying.

The value of the land pubs are built on has always been the key to pub groups corporate value.It was always going to be heads we win tails you loose.They where never interested in managing pubs,managing property assets is what it has always been about.Look at the high rents,beer prices,the punative leases,the cynical attitude to failing pubs.Their attitude has always been the same,as one licensee quits,they have another sucker lined up with the same old promises,that are never fulfilled.

But things have changed.They have killed the Goose that laid the golden egg, well and truly.They are now running scared and wanting to sell the family jewels to bolster falling profits.Pub groups have been instumental in the almost catacylismic collapse of the pub trade,and are now reaping the commercial wind.

And what about you the landlord of one of these pubs that will be sold off?Sorry guys they say,we are only interested in developiing your pub as a potential building plot,we don’t give a toss about you or your business.And as for that great institution, the British Pub,well who gives a damn.

Still at least there is a sort of honesty with Enterprise Inns in taking off the mask and seeking Real Estate status.Small comfort for anybody whose pub is about to sold from underneath them.

Posted in Pub Stuff | 4 Comments »

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