City diary
It's bad to talk
A tenant of a major pubco claims a
change of policy means phone numbers of
business development managers (BDMs) are no longer being given out. Instead, licensees are told they must ring head office which will transfer callers to a BDM's voicemail. The licensee, who has been working for the company since 1999, but hasn't yet met his new BDM, says: "I was ringing about a rent review because my takings are down by £1,500 a week. The company says there's a new policy and numbers are not being given out." It's one way of cutting down complaints.
Soft southern targets
City Diary understands that Suffolk-based Adnams may be preparing to launch an assault on the soft underbelly of southern retailing. The company runs highly-successful Cellar & Kitchen shops in places such as Southwold, in Suffolk, and Holkham, in Norfolk. Now leafy Richmond-on-Thames is rumoured to be the next opening in a move to target openings across southern England and London.
It is what it used to be
Wetherspoon chief executive John Hutson is at pains to debunk claims that New Year's Eve has become a damp squib for the trade. "It's folklore that since the millennium, when the great British public got ripped off, people have started to stay in. As a day, it's very busy. It has evolved - we're selling more food that we used to - even
if it's not quite as vital at midnight."
M&B's cask-ale fillip
More good news for those who believe cask ale is resurgent. Mitchells & Butlers Tall Ships, outside Hartlepool, the second ever new-build Ember Inns site, which opened a fortnight ago, features a viewable cellar next to the main bar. The cellar, which doesn't actually function, creates interest by having notes about cask ale and previewing the next brew that will appear on the bar. For a while now, Ember Inns have been sporting wine display cabinets so it's one against the head for UK cask brewers.
Wisdom on the web
City Diary came across the following scribblings on the web. "Another way the pub landscape will change is that those who were seduced in recent times into separating the property from the operations may well live to regret it. Such re-financings may be OK in a bull market. But most have a built-in ratchet which increases the rent by about 2.5% a year. The operational side may be able to cope with this in a bubbling market, but not when trade goes flat, so it will be interesting to see how such deals pan out." Anyone know which company this may be referring to?
Popping out for a fag
A restaurant owner has come up with a quirky way of getting around Germany's new smoking ban - he has created holes in his wall through which a smoker can stick their head and hands and enjoy a cigarette. Michael Windisch, owner of the Maltermeister Turm eatery in Goslar, Lower Saxony, said that using the "smoking point" would allow smokers to legally enjoy a cigarette without having to go outside. He has made three holes in the wall of his establishment - one for the head and two smaller ones for the hands. He has also added cushioned edges for comfort and a ledge on which to put an ashtray. To recycle a German catch-phrase, one day all smoking solutions will be built this way.
Cruel November
Sources tells City Diary that Sports
Cafe - the chain that popped in and out of administration last week - saw a 23% decline in like-for-like sales in December. Sales for the month plunged to £1.37m from £1.77m the year before. Sales at the chain were down marginally in October 2007 on the year before, with a downturn really taking hold in November - sales were £1.19m compared to £1.42m the year before. It confirms, if more confirmation was needed, that a fairly savage downturn started in November - hurting some operators far more than others.
Wear Inns' Queen Vic strategy
Industry veteran John Sands has been explaining the business plan of Wear Inns, his new managed venture where he serves as chairman. The former Pubmaster boss launched Wear Inns in 2006 with managing director John Weir and so far has six outlets
across the north-east and Yorkshire, with plans to double that number in the coming months. Said Sands: "Wear Inns aims to give a good quality offering to the drinking man. We're more of a Queen Vic than a Rovers Return." City Diary thinks this might be bad news - doesn't the Queen Vic tend to attract more fights than the Rovers Return and be a much more miserable place generally?
Grogan walks it like he talks it
John Grogan's pre-Christmas jibe condemning Tesco's chief executive Sir Terry Leahy as the "godfather of British binge drinking" has had a personal impact on the Labour MP's life away from the headlines it has attracted. Addressing licensees and leading trade figures at the MA and S&N's Heart of the Community Honours lunch at the House of Commons last week, he confirmed his intention was designed to
be much more than a war
of words. A keen pub campaigner and supporter
in every sense of the word, in a rare recent occasion when he had to buy alcohol for a gathering he was hosting, his anti-Tesco stance meant he had to drive extra miles in order to give his business to Morrisons instead. Refreshing to hear of a politician who sticks to his principles - and, like the Morrisons advert chimes, if you live in Selby, it's just another reason to vote Grogan.
Bottom fishing
In the wake of Wetherspoon boss Tim Martin and Belhaven's Stuart Ross buying shares in their respective companies, comes another strong hint that sector shares may be a bargain at the moment. Andrew Knight, boss of Punch's managed arm Spirit, has bought 5,085 shares at an average price of 585p, equating to a spend of just under £30,000. They do look pretty cheap bearing in mind Adrian Fawcett, former boss of the tenanted side, sold a million pounds worth at £12.76 in December 2006. Knight now has 9,000 private shares and "an interest" in a further 75,000 shares through options and long-term incentive plans.
heading heading
One figure jumps out from the Charles Wells annual report. The company undertook a root-and-branch review of licensee support. Recruitment, training and support were all improved. Its new retail induction programme, Crisp, picked up an award for best induction programme at the National training Awards in December. Licensee turnover fell by a mighty 30% in the year to September 2007. "We spent a lot of time looking at the reasons for early departure," Paul Wells tells City Diary. Full credit for giving this attention in a year when the company was bedding in Young's and Courage brewing.
The carvery miracle continues
More evidence, if it were required, of the efficacy of carvery. Mitchells & Butlers' Pub & Carvery brand - the epitome of the value and volume model - is being rolled out to all manner of sites to mop up local trade. City Diary hears the brand, now at 70-plus sites, has yet to have a failure. Even an ex-Whitbread site in Gainsborough, Lincs, which slumped to £2,000 a week, is hitting £15,000 a week (it happens to be Pub & Carvery's lowest-take pub). Lined up, though, are Pub & Carvery's two greatest challenges from the acquired Whitbread estate - the Bluebird, a modern glass monstrosity in Tilgate Park, Crawley, Sussex, and - even more daunting - the Lakeview, in Windermere, Cumbria. The latter lays claim to the title of most oddly-sited Brewers Fayre: up a set of stairs above a fruit-machine arcade. It had been on the market several times over the years, before being tucked into the portfolio sold to M&B. If carvery can't work trading alchemy here, nothing can.
