Survival of the fittest is fairest policy of all

Being "fair" might be the loadstone of the Coalition's philosophy, but not much of it is percolating down to our business.

For instance the OFT decision that the beer tie stays will be seen as horribly unfair to many as does the apparent lack of Government interest in closing the duty gap between cider and beer.

Meanwhile at the sharp end is the disturbing number of pubs slated by the latest Good Pub Guide for a variety of alleged failings; being dirty, having rude staff, serving lousy food and even worse beer.

But the complaint I liked the best was being terrorised by smelly dogs. This hardly seems fair to a business that is working so successfully to reinvent itself, not to mention the feelings of dogs, a powerful lobby not to be dismissed lightly in this country.

Most worryingly for our pub business is the off-trade seizing on what is probably a slightly exaggerated tale of on-trade shortcomings to flood the media with fistfuls of statistics proving that the home is now the happening place to drink, staying-in is cool, that you will never eat and drink better and more cheaply than at home, and you can

legally smoke there in comfort if you want to. Good luck to them.

It's their turn after months of savaging by the on-trade over issues like minimum pricing. So I suppose you could say this is "fair". Its also a bit short sighted - the two wings of the trade indulging in a punch-up with our neo-prohibitionist enemies circling us like slavering jackals.

In the face of this threat the best thing is to forget "fair", with its attendant risk of getting lost in the moral maze and get Darwinian. This means every pub has to develop its own evolutionary strategy around its own area and customer base. That way the best will

win and the useless will disappear.

A splendid example of Darwinism is Charlie McVeigh and his Draft House concept.

In Budvar we haven't completely abandoned "fair". We recently received a unilateral decision from a customer to make payment to us in 90 days instead of the agreed 30. What they had overlooked was that we owed them money - which of course they didn't get for 90 days. That's "fair".

Tony Jennings is CEO of Budvar UK​