Brulines seeking legal advice over BEC report claims
Brulines, the company which manufactures beer flow monitoring equipment, said today it was taking legal advice on comments made about its products in the Business & Enterprise select committee's (BEC) report on the pub industry.
Brulines was heavily criticised in the BEC report, published today, which concluded that the beer tie which Bruline's technology polices ought to be reviewed, and said it had "doubts about the basic accuracy of the equipment".
It added that pubcos "should not be allowed to rely on data from Brulines equipment to enforce claims against lessees accused of buying out of the tie".
However Brulines hit back, noting that the BEC report was a "misrepresentation" of its products and services and that "at no time during the inquiry has any member of the BEC enquiry sought clarifications from Brulines on either the claims made, or examples concerning the beer monitoring system of processes used".
The group said the BEC inquiry "appears to have relied upon one specific example (and some unstated others) and assume that this is representative of 22,000 public houses". This was "wholly misleading and presents an imbalanced view", the group said.
The report's findings in relation to Brulines and dispense monitoring were "ill informed, one sided, misleading, and unrepresentative", it added.
The Stockton-on-Tees company said its beer monitoring "provides transparency to beer operations in a pub which is not a problem for the vast majority of lessees".
"To support its findings the BEC inquiry has relied upon limited anecdotal evidence from individuals.
"Items are stated as fact when they have not been verified with the company in question, eg Brulines, or any attempt made to seek comments or a response from us."
Brulines said it would be taking "full legal advice" on what it called the "prejudical statement" in the BEC report that pubcos should not be allowed to use their data to enforce buying-out claims.
The BEC report cited a visit by MP committee members to the Eagle Ale House in Battersea, South London, which "found their Brulines 'account' bizarrely showed that they had almost 2,000 gallons (around 220 barrels) of beer in stock that had been delivered and not sold over a 12 month period," the report said.
The report said it was possible that the equipment was "as reliable as the company claims", but added the difficulty was in verifying the situation, adding the measurement device to police such a situation ought to be "properly calibrated and subject to external verification".
It added: "Given the impossibility of distinguishing between beer dispensed and sold, beer run off and disposed of preparatory to serving, and water used to clean the lines, we believe pubcos should not be allowed to rely on data from Brulines equipment to enforce claims against lessees accused of buying out of the tie."
