What now for Mitchells & Butlers?

Mitchells & Butlers (M&B) probably thought it was out of the woods two years ago when it waved good-bye to shareholder Robert Tchenguiz, who sold his 20 per cent-plus stake to billionaire Joe 'Piedmont' Lewis. If only.

Most agree M&B runs some of the best pubs in the UK. However, at a corporate level it seems to lurch from one crisis to another.

While unlikely to warm the coronary cockles of M&B's senior management, or indeed the market, at least the bust-up between the operator and Lewis serves as a distraction for those of us awaiting the next set of ruminations on the UK pub sector from the Business, Innovation & Skills Committee.

But this is the best that can be said for the ongoing contretemps 'twixt the two sides over who sits on the M&B board.

Rows conducted in public between companies and their shareholders are never a particularly edifying spectacle and it's difficult not to conclude that M&B is rather on the rack this time, after the financially disastrous spat with Tchenguiz.

If Piedmont was proposing individuals to sit on its board who were, shall we say, members of the scrap metal fraternity, well perhaps M&B could argue they weren't suitable to oversee a pub company.

But among the people we're talking about are the likes of Jeremy Blood, who ran chunks of Scottish & Newcastle pretty successfully for several years, and John Lovering, former chairman of Laurel Pub Company.

True, prior participation in the sector does not make one a genius, but the credentials of these individuals are pretty solid.

By rejecting these people out of hand under the guise of 'minority influence' M&B is in danger of being seen as stuck in a rut, corporately. In times like these businesses can ill afford to be viewed in such a way…