Licensee excluded from pubco discount scheme

A former Enterprise licensee who lost his pub because of financial difficulties has accused the company of failing to treat all licensees equally.

Brian Mackie, who used to run the Black Swan in Todmorden, Lancashire, claimed he would have saved £15,000 over nine months if the pub company had allowed him and his partner to take part in the "Bradford Scheme".

The Bradford Scheme allows publicans to save between £30 and £100 a barrel bought from Enterprise as part of its tie agreement, in exchange for a higher rent.

There appears to be no set criteria for who qualifies, with the discount given at the company's discretion.

Mr Mackie said: "Another Enterprise Inns' licensee was on the scheme and told me about it. So I contacted the company and asked if I could join.

"At first the area manager John Levin even denied that the scheme existed, then they just refused point blank to give me the discounts. It should be a level playing field - they should treat all their licensees the same.

"When I was running the Black Swan I just couldn't compete with other pubs in the area and that's why I asked to join the scheme."

Another Enterprise licensee, who preferred to remain nameless, said: "I have some pubs that are part of the Bradford Scheme and some that aren't. Those pubs in the scheme are better off as it's a lot fairer. It's not right that only some licensees should be offered the discount.

"The way I see it is there are no criteria - but if a potential licensee is put off taking a pub on in the first place they are then offered this discount as an incentive," he said.

The Publican asked Enterprise Inns to respond to Mr MacKie's claims but was told by customer services director Simon Townsend that the pub company would not be able to comment about individual cases, or generally about any incentive schemes that it ran.