Group practice

Three different businesses, but one common aim ­ best practice.Mick Whitworth takes a look at the trade's efforts in the run-up to the Morning Advertiser's Responsible Drinks Retailing Awards

Union Pub Company

Walking the talk

Talk is cheap. It's the commercial decisions made by pub operators that really prove their commitment, or otherwise, to responsible retailing.

Take the Union Pub Company (UPC), the tenanted division of Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries, which has decided to turn down any supplier promotions that could encourage irresponsible drinking. For example, says business opportunities manager Karl Czinege, UPC rejected a malt-whisky promotion offering a "free" hip flask to customers buying two double measures of Scotch. But it accepted an Amarula Cream promotion encouraging people to "sip" the drink, and to drink in moderation.

UPC became an associate member of the Portman Group in June. It has quickly got behind initiatives such as "Don't do drunk" and is supplying all new starters with "Prove it" kits to ensure they understand how to tackle under-age drinking.

The pubco has also developed a price list for tenants that includes abv and units-of-alcohol details. "This means licensees have a better understanding of the amounts of alcohol in different drinks, as well as helping customers monitor their intake better," says Czinege.

Elements of responsible retailing are included in UPC's induction training for new tenants. But it has gone a step further with the launch of a new, free, one-day course on dealing with some of the tougher social issues. Titled "Drink, drunks, rocks and your role", it focuses on the Government's strategy towards alcohol-related problems, how licensees should react to it, how to deal with difficult drunks and how to handle the menace of drugs. The pilot course, launched in July, was an immediate sell-out.

To deliver the training, UPC went to Telford Training Consultants, a Government contractor for re-training of drink-drivers. "They use their skill, knowledge and experience to cover everything from alcohol misuse to anger management and controlling difficult customers," says Czinege.

UPC's in-house journal, Tap Room News, keeps tenants up to speed with these and other initiatives, encouraging debate and helping to spread best practice. But the company also targets trade press and regional media with positive stories about responsible retailing.

This, says Czinege, helps combat negative reporting that blames the pub industry for the country's anti-social behaviour problems.

The Royal Hotel

Hands-on and trouble-free

It's a lot easier to keep drink-related problems at bay when you own and run your own operation, says Janice Booth, co-owner and licensee of the Royal Hotel in Station Road, Great Harwood, near Blackburn, Lancashire.

Booth and her husband, Pete, who will shortly be taking his licensees' certificate, have quietly but firmly stamped their authority on this popular live-music venue and real-ale haven, which also has its own micro-brewery, the Red Rose Brewery, next door.

The Booths have proved that the old-fashioned approach to responsible retailing ­ an orderly house ensured by the personality and presence of the landlady and landlord ­ can be just as effective as formal systems and high-profile initiatives.

"My approach is simply that we're a trouble-free pub," says Janice. "We're joined onto a busy small town where a lot of young people drink, and I'll always be sociable with them. But I make it clear that we are not their type of pub."

She has strong views on the "binge-drinking culture", which she feels has been fuelled by managed chains offering ultra-low prices and pressuring managers to achieve volume targets.

She continues: "I'm very much against the idea of management'. It's not a sweetshop you're running, it's a public house. People don't come in, buy a beer and then go. They stay. But these young managers get people in, get them to drink as much as possible, then get the bouncers to chuck them out."

The Booths refused one supplier's offer of larger optics that would force customers to buy bigger measures ­ and not just because they would have to explain the apparent price rises on all their spirits. "I don't want to be offering people twice the amount," says Janice. "At the moment they know what they can drink before they drive home. But if I was just a manager, I'd have to take them if that was company policy."

Janice took over the Royal three years ago after a year-long tenancy at the Lomax, also in Great Harwood, which was her first pub. She ran this with daughter Melissa, who will shortly be reactivating her licence to help out at the Royal.

Janice says: "Our policy is: no swearing, no fighting, no big-screen football ­ and no karaoke'. And it works."

Mitchells & Butlers

Training underpins social responsibility

With more than 35,000 retail staff nationally, Mitchells & Butlers is the fourth-largest UK employer to boast Investors in People recognition.

So it's no wonder staff training is one of the main drivers of responsible retailing across the pubco's 2,000-plus estate.

Every retail employee goes through M&B's "Stepping stones" training scheme, which gives a solid grounding in the legal and ethical responsibilities of serving alcohol.

The company's licensed house manager programme includes compulsory completion of the British Institute of Innkeeping's National Certificate for Licensees. And further training is provided to regional operations employees.

For example, says M&B spokeswoman Kate Glover: "Our operations directors held presentations earlier this year highlighting alcohol and social responsibility issues to our retail business managers as well as our directors and general managers."

The company has certainly not been a sluggard when it comes to responsible retailing. It introduced an alcohol and social responsibility (ASR) policy as early as 2000, giving clear guidelines on promotions and pricing.

All new promotions are reviewed against this policy by the company's senior sales and marketing team and the ASR document has continued to evolve. Some of M&B's restaurant group brands, for example, have added alcohol unit information to wine lists to build staff and customer awareness.

From this month, promotions offering discounted volume purchases, such as two-for-one offers and "buy two glasses of wine and get the rest of the bottle free" are being eradicated from the business.

"There will be no free' alcohol inducements," says Glover. And for its bars and venues businesses M&B has developed the NAA promotion: "Non-alcoholic Alternatives always Available".

"This means any promotion we run will always offer a soft drink at an equal or less than promotion price," explains Glover, adding that NAA will be rolled out to all M&B's high street outlets ­ around 550 pubs ­ over the next six months.

Under the Bass name, M&B was a founding member of the Portman Group. Today, says Glover, corporate social responsibility and in particular the aspects related to alcohol, remain a top priority. Creating "safe and secure places to visit" is considered a guiding principle.