Recruitment companies continue to fail licensees
Licensees are calling on the government to stop recruitment companies from failing to live up to their promises.
The Publican newsdesk has been inundated with phone calls from licensees responding to last week's exclusive story.
They claim they have been misled by a raft of companies that offer training and the promise of a placement in a pub, in return for a payment of thousands of pounds. Many licensees say they have only been offered pubs that are in bad repair. Many are also out of pocket as some of these companies have taken money, gone into receivership and then set up again somewhere else. Michelle Oldfield from York paid £5,000 to one company last August and was placed in a pub in Huddersfield, but found it was riddled with mice and was forced to leave.
"They said it would be the pub of your choice in an area of your choice," she said. "We wanted to be near York but were only showed really bad pubs in Leeds and Nottingham. We have lost our £5,000. The authorities should be acting."
Sue Geraghty from Widnes, Cheshire, lost £7,000 after replying to an advert in the national press. "Somebody should do something about it", she said. "We were all led to believe it was an easy way into the trade. The government should act. A lot of us have lost money over this."
Tony Payne, chief executive of the Federation of Licensed Victuallers' Associations, said he sent information on recruitment firms to the Department of Trade & Industry (DTI) in 2001.
"The government should have acted before," he declared. "I get regular phone calls directed from trading standards officers about these companies - they should be the ones acting."
The DTI said: "We never confirm or deny whether we are investigating companies for legal reasons." Anyone who thinks they have been a victim can contact the DTI, the Office of Fair Trading or local trading standards.
"We didn't want a disco pub"
Diane Bartnik (pictured) and her partner Peter Lyon saw an advert in one of the national papers for Premier Pub Management (PPM).
After an interview with the company they say they were promised a rural pub with a food trade. They handed over £3,775.
"As long as it was the type of pub we wanted we didn't mind where it was. We were offered a pub in Leeds and the company persuaded us that it was right for us and we agreed.
"Then we found out it was everything we told it we didn't want. We didn't want a disco pub. We told PPM that it was not for us and we waited but nothing else came up. We applied to different pub companies and were offered a pub."
Within a period of six weeks the couple took a pub from Punch Pub Company.
Martin Towell, consultant of PPM, said: "We provide a low-cost, low-risk route to the trade. These licensees turned us down two days before they were due to take on the pub."
Related articles:
Training companies fail to deliver on promises (26 August 2004)
