Hamish Champ: Are licensees really a bunch of moaning minnies?

Are all licensees 'moaners'?

I ask this - in a rhetorical sense you understand - because commenting on my blog on VAT last week one reader bemoaned what he inferred from my article was my own bemoaning the lot of the licensee. "The usual moanings from an industry that does nothing but moan," he moaned.

OK, that's a lot of 'moans' in one paragraph, but you get my drift.

While he was perfectly at liberty to comment thus he was nevertheless way off. I was not moaning, rather I was merely raising concerns about the impact on licensee income that would result from the impending reversion to the full rate of VAT.

And anyway, despite what some people say about the genetic makeup of a pub landlord resulting in overt complaining behaviour and grumpiness, not every licensee complains about his or her lot 24/7.

The majority of the 55,000 licensees in this country get on with the job of serving punters in the time honoured tradition of hospitality and what not, because it's what they do​.

True, like men who hold open doors for women, the traditional rotund, rosy-cheeked pub landlord chuckling with customers seems to be a rare thing these days. I've no doubt those opposing much of what goes on in the industry today would argue this type of licensee has been forced out of the trade by the practices of the landlord community.

While rising rents and falling income don't help matters it's not as simple as that, obviously. Not every pub that's suffering is a tied house. And not every tied house is suffering.

Notwithstanding the industry issues affecting licensees, I think a lot of what is shaping today's pub landscape is a result of demographic trends. People under a certain age don't see the pub in the same way as I did when I was a young(er) man. Plus for those of us of any age there is more to compete for what money there still is in our pocket than used to be the case.

It's about how one responds to such developments that makes a difference.

In the late 1990s music industry executives were observing that kids spent money on mobile phones they'd previously have doled out on buying records. This was a problem. Then the record industry finally caught up with the technology, and today it does a better job - though by no means a perfect one - of selling music online and to kids via their mobile phones.

I guess savvy operators in the pub sector are similarly trying to respond to evolving trends in society.

I admire people who serve us punters, day in, day out. I don't know how they do it, frankly, given the stuff they have to put up with, tied or otherwise. When I find a pub where I'm given a warm welcome I make a note to visit that pub again. And again.

A licensee's life is focused on making other people's lives enjoyable. It's a selfless task. Some would doubtless add it's a 'thankless one' too.

But thank Gawd it's still being done, day after day.