Oliver: buying out will not be tolerated

Union Pub Company, the tenanted and leased arm of Wolverhampton & Dudley, has told its business development managers (BDMs) they must crack down on buying out in the coming year.

BDMs attending a meeting in York were told that the company had been too tolerant on buying out compared to its competitors. Details of the uncompromising message from boss Stephen Oliver at the meeting were leaked to the Morning Advertiser.

This week Oliver admitted he had urged his BDMs to clamp down on buying out. "I said that this is a competitive market and we have to do better than our competitors. The atmosphere at the meeting was excellent and my comments were extremely well received," he said.

"One of my roles as managing director of Union is to get my staff whipped up so they want to join me in striving for better performance.

"We've got to make our performance as good as it can be. I did say that there are things we have to do on capital expenditure and buying out - we haven't been tough enough on buying out - to improve basic performance and we've got to be up for that."

Oliver said all companies benchmark against each other and Union had been too lenient on buying out compared to others.

He added that Union is planning record capital expenditure in the coming year - with £10m being spent on smoking ban preparations. "There is a massive amount of momentum and energy in the business," added Oliver.

In addition, BDMs have been given the freedom to pass all spending projects up to £30,000 in pubs - a 50% increase on the previous ceiling.

NEW MEMBERS JOIN UNION BOARD

Union Pub Company has re-jigged its management board as it prepares for the smoking ban. Andrew Andrea and Andy Cooney have been appointed as operations directors, replacing Simon Cattley (sales director) and Chris Proctor-Smith (property developer), who have left the company. Andrew Winning is the new finance director replacing Gary Smith who has joined W&D Brands as finance director. "The new structure places an emphasis on a closer link between operations and property in particular," said Oliver.