Enterprise Inns boss Ted Tuppen has claimed that Vince Power, who is sponsoring the anti-pubco Fair Pint campaign, has done well financially from the two Enterprise sites he leases.
Power recently had seven pubs in London on the market, one freehold, two Enterprise tied leases and four free-of-tie leases.
The two Enterprise pubs, the Moose and the Camel, had rents of less than 8.5% of turnover in each case — around half of the rent-to-turnover percentages of his free-of-tie leases.
Power was offering the two leases at premiums of £500,000 for the Moose, £450,000 for the Camel.
Tuppen told the Morning Advertiser: "The tied rents are half the free-of-tie rents and clearly Power believes that they are valuable assets — £950,000 is a lot of money for the unused portion of a lease. It seems a little hypocritical to be sponsoring a protest march on the offices of the pub company which has leased him such good sites for such a reasonable price. At least we now know where he gets the money from."
Power, who denied he was sponsoring the pubco protest march, said: "They're decent sites because I made them decent sites. They're not bars, they're music pubs where I have invested £500,000 to get them into a fit state and put on bands and DJs.
"My issue is the injustice of the tie. Tied pubs are paying lot more than the market rate for their beer and can't compete — it's why so many pubs are closing down."
Five sites being sold by Vince Power:
Bloomsbury Ballroom: Free of tie, turnover: £1,193,000, rent: £200,000, % of turnover: 16.8%
Moose Bar: Enterprise lease, turnover: £1,103,000, rent: £92,500, % of turnover: 8.4%
Ion Bar: Free of tie, pro rata, turnover: £650,000, rent: £100,000, % of turnover: 15%
Camel: Enterprise lease, turnover: £937,000, rent: £67,000, % of turnover: 7.1%
Spiga Bar: Free of tie, turnover: £1,230,000, rent: £172,500, % of turnover: 14%