Business Opinion

Managing to put off good customers

Business in my local Vintage Inns (VI) managed house is booming - against the trend of the industry in general.

Well, I assume that business is booming because, along with five others I was turned away from the half-empty pub when we went in for a quick drink at 10pm on Christmas Eve - apparently just as it was about to close. Closing time had been advertised as 11pm. Our anticipated three rounds - which would have been about £20 each - obviously weren't needed to boost turnover, as they had probably already hit their budgets.

We were told curtly by a person who turned out to be the manageress that they were about to close "to get ready for Christmas Day, as we are going to be very busy tomorrow". Bully for them - M&B obviously didn't need our business.

What a difference at our local tenanted pub. Although about a mile away, we walked there muttering all of the way our disgust at the reception we had received at the Vintage Inns pub. We were welcomed with open arms even though the Enterprise Inn was full to the rafters. What a difference! It was abundantly clear that the landlord wanted our business, but the managed house didn't. What does this say about being self-employed?

I would point out that all six of us are respectable middle-aged persons who eat and drink at local pubs at least once per week - but not in our local Vintage Inn any more. Incidentally, we all live within a couple of hundred yards of the pub.

Having had some problems with this VI earlier in the year, we decided to give it a miss for our regular Christmas meal. Instead our party of 17 (again all locals) spent almost £750 at another local tenanted pub, again an Enterprise Inn.

To add further credence to my view that a good tenant will usually (but not always) beat a good manager, some two months ago, my wife and I popped into a Wadworth's managed house. After two drinks each and waiting for over an hour for our meal to arrive, we politely asked how long our meals would be. On being told that they would be at least another 30 minutes we complained to the manager. We received no apology. On the contrary we were told: "Right, you can have your money back!" And this was without even asking for a refund. At least the 6X was good!

So what can we deduce from all of this? Well, after longer in the trade than I care to remember, I still champion the local tenancy. No painting by numbers and bottom-line unawareness, just pure personal entrepreneurial skills!

Clive Williams was brought up in the trade and is a former tenanted director at Whitbread. After leaving Whitbread in 1990 he co-founded three pubcos, the last of which - Celtic Inns - was sold to Marston's in 2006