Punch pledges support for licensees

The managing director of Punch Taverns has defended what she said was a widely-held bad opinion of the company but admitted that it still had a lot of work to do.

Speaking today at the Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers Business Day, at Lord's Cricket Ground in London, Deborah Kemp said Punch was working hard to change the way in which it deals with licensees.

"Punch has to change. I realise Punch has to change," she said.

"Punch is not as big bad and ugly as most of you think. We are much more responsible and flexible.

"People might have a perception and think 'we'll never do business with them' (Punch) and I can understand that," she said.

She added the size the Punch had grown to sometimes made it hard to instigate change within the company but that she was committed to building better relationships with its licensees.

As part of this, Punch now refers to its licensees as customers.

"In many ways we had forgotten our customers. Acquisition had taken over the original, most important, part of the business.

"You're only as good as the team around you. What our customers were saying was that some of our BRMs were not good enough. We had a real image problem in some areas," she said.

She also commented on the hard time the industry was facing and said Punch was committed to supporting licensees that were willing to adapt.

"If I'm naïve enough to think I can subsidise beer revenue for rent, I'm not going to last long as MD," she said.

"If I don't grow the customers' business I'm not going to grow Punch's business."