Careers in managed pubs: The right start
The pub industry offers a brilliant career but what is the best way in? This new Special Report, Careers in Managed Pubs, aims to help aspiring licensees make a good start. By Phil Mellows.
Running a pub, they say, is not so much a job as a way of life. It's that, perhaps, that attracts so many people towards the industry - the idea that it can fit snugly around your personality and hardly seem like you're working at all.
As readers of The Publican will have noticed over recent weeks, however, the aura that surrounds being a licensee has clouded the judgement of many who look for ways into the industry.
People have been paying thousands of pounds up front to recruitment companies for training and the promise of a pub of their own - a promise that doesn't always materialise in the way they expect.
Assuming you don't have access to £200,000-plus to spend on a freehold, the proper way to enter the pub industry is through the companies who actually own the pubs.
If you have a fair amount of cash, say £15,000-plus, you could think about going straight into a tenancy or leasehold. The Publican's Tenancies & Leases Guide, published in July, lists the pubcos offering this route. But if you don't have money the answer is pub management.
Managed pubs have declined in number over the past few years as companies have transferred smaller properties to tenancy but they still take a high profile in the industry, not only because they dominate the high streets with well-known names but because it's the managed pubcos that have been the cutting edge of the industry's efforts to become more professional.
This is reflected in standards of service and, behind the scenes, in the genuine careers on offer to those coming into the industry. The leading companies now have well-established career structures that can take an individual from barperson or kitchen hand to running their own pub, and on to roles at pubco HQ, if that's what they're cut out for.
Once you're on the career ladder you will be trained not only in pulling pints but in the wide range of management skills needed to run a successful pub. The rewards tend to start small but the package for many pub managers can add up to at least £40,000.
But perhaps the most attractive aspect of pub management for the ambitious type is the chance to, effectively, operate a medium-sized business which can be turning over £1m or more a year.
Plus, it's fun! What more could you want from a career?
Industry facts
- The pub industry turns over £23.7bn and employs around 350,000 people
- It is currently growing at the rate of 10 per cent a year.
