Silver sector will be crucial to pub success

Ultimately it's the quality of the people in our industry that will make the difference between success or failure, between whether we overcome the challenges we face or we succumb to them.

In fact with shrinking job numbers it has never been more important that the people in our besieged trade are of the highest quality, both in terms of knowledge and commitment, if we are to successfully negotiate the turbulence ahead.

One thing we cannot afford to be is ageist. This was brought home to me personally when one of the key members of my team announced his decision to retire at the end of this year after his 69th birthday.

It has brought home to me the enormous amount of experience, wisdom, strategic foresight and tactical skill, not to mention friends and contacts accumulated over a lifetime in the industry, that will be lost to us in the coming years.

I am talking about slow-growing stuff that can only be harvested after decades. We have to cherish the mature, not for sentimental reasons, but for the vital input they can make to our business in any capacity. Behind the bar or in the boardroom it can be decisive.

Sure, we need youth as well, but nobody needs persuading about that. Of course age can't be a talisman against redundancy but why is it so hard to persuade business not to chuck away lifetimes of knowledge?

The mature also have a much more intense focus on their work, unlike the young. That's not a criticism, it's a biological fact. Also the population is getting older and there is evidence that people are more comfortable dealing with their peers who share the same or at least similar life experiences.

There must be some correlation between the growing number of older pub-goers, their choice of hostelry and the number of hosts who are now retiring well into their seventies — some even staying on in there, still enjoying life, into their nineties. We've been told the first person who will live to be 150 is already born so these demographics will become more and more the norm rather than the exception.

In view of this we should let "yoof" look after itself and instead study the grey market a lot more. It could be the future in terms of employees, retailers and, above all customers.

Tony Jennings is chief executive of Budweiser Budvar.​