As it announced a 38 per cent slump in annual pre-tax profits Punch Taverns, the UK's largest pub operator, admitted it needed to be more transparent in its relations with licensees.
Roger Whiteside, head of the pubco's leased and tenanted division, said he wanted to "completely reappraise how we explain things like the tie".
Whiteside said while the group's lease agreements were written in plain English "there are aspects of the relationship between us and our operators which need to be more transparent. We need to look at and be more open about things such as the earnings potential for a pub, how the leased model works and so on", he said.
The group simply needed to engage more, Whiteside added.
His comments came as the pubco kicked off a review of all 7,500-plus leased and tenanted pubs in the Punch estate designed to gauge their earnings potential. Whiteside said he could envisage some form of 'banding' segmentation, splitting pubs up into groups according to their earning power.
Punch Taverns' chief executive Giles Thorley added that the pubco could get more involved when an existing lessee assigns his or her lease: "We can't unreasonably reject an assignee, but there is scope to be clearer about what our expectations are with regard to someone taking over one of our pubs.
"They have to have the required skill sets. We urge people in this position to do their homework, but sadly some don't."
Punch today revealed that for the 28 weeks to March 7, 2009 earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) came in above analysts forecast, however, at £275m.
Pre-tax profits fell from £133m to £82m on turnover down nearly £40m at £767.9m, which was also above what the City was expecting.
After exceptional charges of £184m, including pub impairment charges of £147m, the group made a loss of £122m.