Punch boss: 'Make us work harder'

The man in charge of 1,600 Punch Taverns pubs in the North East of England has urged licensees to demand more from their relationship with the company.

Regional operations director David Wigham said around 30 per cent of tenants and lessees in the estate are not taking advantage of the support packages available.

Speaking exclusively to The Publican​ on a visit to his patch in York, he said: "We are trying to be more transparent. I would urge people to get what they pay for.

"I would say around 30 per cent of people do not take advantage of what's available to them."

The move is a further bid by Punch to improve its relationship with licensees following the damning Business and Enterprise Committee report into pubco power earlier this year.

The company has already agreed to ditch restrictive covenants and remove the rentalisation aspect of machine income from its agreements with licensees.

Wigham, who has been in post for six months and looks after pubs from Berwick in the North East down to South Derbyshire, also hinted that greater discounts on beers could be made available to pubs that sell greater volumes.

"We are looking at our deals and structures and those deals should reflect the businesses," he said.

David and Wendy Hyde lessees at Punch pub the Ainsty in York, stressed that they expected greater discounts as the majority of their business is wet led.

"We are tied on lager and ciders and 90 per cent of our business is wet led so we think we should be entitled to better deals."

However he stressed that they get support for the price they pay for beer, particularly since the business has struggled to compete with nearby pubs running drinks promotions in recent weeks.

"We pay more for beer but we get a BRM (Business Relationship Manager) as part of that and we would have struggled without that advice or the courses we have been on.

"I would advise other licensees to work with them to make sure you are getting what you pay for.

"I read stories about the beer tie and sometimes I wonder if licensees are working with or against the pub company."

Wigham added that of the 1,600 pubs in his portfolio only 25 are currently closed. This is down from 35 last month with "the majority" of those 10 being re-opened and only a couple being sold off.