Scottish & Newcastle Pub Co rolls out new lessee support service

Anyone taking on a new lease with Scottish & Newcastle Pub Company (S&NPC) will be required to sign up to the company's new back office support programme called Innside Track.

The programme provides what S&NPC calls a "comprehensive monthly accountancy and stock-taking package" and will address what the group calls lessees' "growing frustration at the increasing amount of administration they have to deal with".

After a year S&NPC lessees can opt out of Innside Track so long as they can prove they are moving to a supplier of similar services with an equal level of reporting skills.

Newcomers to S&NPC who already run large estates and can demonstrate they have good stock-takers and beancounters in place do not have to take up the programme, the company said.

Simon Grant, S&NPC's national recruitment manager, said: "The last decade has seen a huge increase in the amount of red tape and legislation that licensees have to handle.

"Our research shows that lessees want to spend less time in the back office on the computer and more time doing the things they came into the industry to do - developing great pubs and interacting with their customers," he said.

Grant said the service would be delivered by licensed specialists in stock taking and accountancy, with S&NPC negotiating competitive rates with four companies selected "both for the standard of their service and their licensed expertise, giving lessees the reassurance of top quality reporting and interpretation".

Existing lessees can also sign up to the service, he added.