The Publican's Proud of Pubs campaign will help the industry meet its challenges says John McNamara, chief executive of the BII.
The major challenges currently facing the pub industry relate to politics, people and customers.
Politics seems to run through every aspect of our business these days, from the new licensing law to the prospect of anti-smoking legislation, to actions to combat irresponsible drinking and public disturbance.
What seems to be lost in all the plethora of tabloid misreporting and misrepresentation is that this industry is a major factor in the social fabric of our society. The average pub contributes £73,000 to the economy. As an industry we pay over £22bn worth of tax to the Revenue, we employ nearly 900,000 people, we create one in five new jobs and our staff are increasingly better trained, led and motivated.
Pubs continue to raise massive amounts of money for charity and also are at the heart of many of our communities. The BII is therefore embarking on an extended campaign to raise the profile and confirm the importance of the great British pub, and we totally support The Publican's Proud of Pubs campaign.
With nearly 18,000 members, the BII represents a massive section of the industry and all our members sign up to responsible and safe retailing.
Our greatest challenge remains retaining good tenants, lessees, managers and staff and our key task is to ensure that we provide good quality skills, qualifications and information to assist anyone involved in running a successful pub business. Last year, for example, we processed 134,000 individual qualifications, and in 2005 this figure will probably rise to 180,000.
That puts our awarding body at number two behind Edexcel in the vocationally related qualifications league table. That is a major compliment to this industry.
Over the past 30 years, customer expectations have continued to rise, as in every other service sector. The industry has responded to this demand and is now offering a far better level of service across the whole range of the industry than in 1975.
Pubs are now the number one choice for eating out at lunchtime and serve around 1.3 billion meals a year. So standards of service, hygiene and quality of product have continued to rise. This trend will only accelerate.