Inn-Direct defends recruitment record

Pub recruitment company Inn-Direct has denied that it is one of the rogue recruitment firms that continues to operate in the pub trade despite publicity surrounding the collapse of disgraced recruitment company Barber Letting.

An advert for Inn-Direct was published in the Sun and Daily Mirror newspapers on Thursday last week promising excellent earnings in the pub trade.

Trading Standards in Oxford said it received one complaint about Inn-Direct from someone who attended a company presentation on 1 March, on the grounds that the offer sounded too good to be true. But a spokesman said there was no evidence that Inn-Direct has done anything wrong and is not following up the complaint.

But one would-be licensee, Ian Stewart, is taking legal action against Inn-Direct after he claimed he completed the training and was offered a pub that was well below par.

Inn-Direct spokesman Ryan Brown said that for a charge of £3,000 per couple, the company would provide one or two weeks' training in a pub and wouldsubmit the personal licences for the couple. It would then give them eight pubs to choose from.

Brown declined to say which companies owned the pubs, and said the outlets are located in "most parts" of the country.

He said Inn-Direct places around 40 people a year in pubs, and the training it provides is "to BII [British Institute of Innkeeping] standard".

Brown added: "We don't do anything wrong. I don't think we are the only company in the world to have had one or two complaints. If we ever have any problems we always try to resolve them."