Soaring rents lead to country pub closures

Provence under fire for high-rents policy and lack of support for licensees

by The PMA Team

Some country pubs are closing down because licensees are unable to pay the high rents being set by the pub-owning company Provence, whose boss, Paul J Kiely earned nearly £2m last year.

The company, which has 200 pubs, offers licensees the chance to move into free-of-tie pubs without a premium or any money for fixtures and fittings - a super-cheap and super-quick entry to the pub world.

But licensees are complaining that Provence's rents are proving unaffordable in some remote pubs - and the company offers no real support. Provence has four pubs in hamlets in central Lincolnshire that have all closed in recent months after licensees found rents too high.

Ron Bates and Angela Peat have debts of around £30,000 after they ran two Provence pubs - the Cross Roads at East Barkwith and the Red Lion at Baumber - for 18 months.

The couple were paying £1,000 per week to occupy the Cross Roads where turnover was around £3,500 per week. At the Red Lion they were paying a rent of £920 a week with takings around £1,700. By contrast, a nearby tied W&D pub, the Adam & Eve in Wragby, has a tied rent of around £100 per week.

Bates said: 'We asked to look at the Cross Roads books but were told there weren't any. The Cross Roads could be a good pub if the rent was around £500. But £4,000-a-month is a lot of money. There really was no point in going on because we were getting more and more in debt.'

At nearby Maltby Le Marsh, James Lees-Weir left his Pro-vence pub a few weeks ago after deciding it would never support the £930-a-week rent the company wanted. Lees-Weir, who was at the pub for eight months, said the pub took as little as £1,000-a-week.

Provence had wanted to in-crease the rent to £930 a week by the end of the first year - but he struggled to pay £500 a week during August. He reports that one prospective new tenant of his pub, the Crown, at Maltby-Le -Marsh, Lincolnshire, had toured a dozen Provence pubs, but the Crown was the only one trading.

Provence did not try to hold him to his five-year lease when he asked to leave.

Some licensees also complain that Provence is often difficult to contact. Lees-Weir had to drive to Provence's Bolton headquarters to ask for a meeting after the company failed to return his phonecalls. Bates said: 'It's very hard to get Provence to return phonecalls.'

Ian Burry, who runs Provence's Golden Cross at nearby Billing-hay, which has a rent of £995-a- week, also complained about the lack of support from the company. 'We've been here eight weeks waiting for some lights to be put in.' He added: 'We're meeting the rent but we still haven't drawn a wage yet - we are living on savings.'

Tadcaster Pub Company boss Jim Walsh, said licensees should do thorough homework before taking on any pub. 'Ideally, they should look at two years trading figures to be in a position to make a judgement on the viability of the pub,' he said.

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