Punch lessees to become 'customers' of the pubco

Punch Taverns is changing the moniker of its lessees from 'retailer' to 'customer' as part of a drive to improve the relationship between the group's central functions and the people running its estate of leased pubs.

As Punch today announced its pubs saw like-for-like profits down 0.8 per cent in the first 20 weeks of the current financial year, the pubco's corporate affairs director Nigel Turpin said getting the relationship right between the people were running the pub and the team that supports them was "crucial".

"We want to improve the quality of the pub and improve the relationship between the pub and the BDM," he said. Thinking of the lessee as the customer would help focus Punch's support team function, he added.

The changes do not mean the previous relationship was wrong, Turpin said, "rather this is a journey. It's about improving quality and building a partnership between us and the customer [formerly 'retailer'].

"It's about getting away from the 'landlord versus tenant' thing," he added. "Over the next few months we will be embarking on an internal campaign to transition our language from retailer to customer. This will involve an audit of all of our communication tools to ensure consistency."

Punch revealed in its interim management statement, issued earlier today, that it intended to find cost savings of around £10m.

In part these would come from having a smaller pub estate, following sales last year, including the 869 pubs to Admiral Taverns, said Turpin.

He meanwhile acknowledged that margins would be hit across Punch's managed pub business, as the mix towards food sales accelerated: "That just means we'll have to work harder to improve the quality of the site in order to get the consumer in."

Punch would meanwhile be continuing to offer support to customers [formerly 'retailers'] in its leased estate, in what will doubtless be a tough trading environment in the short term, he added.

Turpin said there were currently "fewer" Punch pubs closed or being run on a temporary management basis than this time last year, partly as a result of having rid itself of the "lower end" type of site through disposals.

"We are not short of people wanting to run our pubs," he added.