A senior executive at Enterprise Inns has stated that there are recommendations within the BEC report, which was highly critical of pubco/tenant relations, that "are difficult to argue with".
Asked about the Enterprise response to the report, Colin Pedrick, who oversees 4,000 pubs within the Enterprise estate, said: "I don't think we threw a street party but there are things that are difficult to argue with and there are some things I positively wouldn't agree with."
Pedrick said the company had invested a lot in Business Development Manager training, for example. He said he thought BEC had been a "bit hard on that one". He acknowledged, though, that Enterprise has "no real issue" on greater transparency on rent setting.
Pedrick said there were issues with transparency on the tenant's side of things, with many retailers unwilling to provide information on their profitability. He said that during what he called the "seven fat years" around 45% of the estate's pubs had been sold on assignment, allowing many to leave with capital appreciation.
Pedrick said Enterprise had taken a pro-active approach when it became aware, through Moving Annual Totals (MATs) of individual site beer volumes, that earnings had dropped below £25,000 per annum — it starts dialogue with licensess.
Pedrick said that the industry had to move forward in the wake of the BEC report. Pedrick said that his £22m annual investment capital is being entirely spent on re-opening closed pubs and getting the fabric of pubs in good order.
He quoted the dictum about the need to "repair the roof when the sun shines". He said that there are "plenty of places where that didn't happen". This situation meant that Enterprise had had to pass on investing in a site to be tenanted by Peach Pub Company on account of the heavy investment required.
"I couldn't find the money to do it," he said.