I was interested to hear of the deal struck twixt Thornbridge Brewery, in Derbyshire, and the pubco behemoth that is Enterprise Inns.
Thornbridge already operated a couple of Enterprise-owned pubs but wanted to be able to sell its own beer in a pub leased from the pubco.
It took the small brewer two years to persuade the Solihull-headquartered group it was a deal worth doing which, in a nutshell, sees Thornbridge pay Enterprise a tie release fee to be able to sell its own beers in the pub.
Its rationale is simple: Thornbridge gets more people into pubs to buy the beer it produces which it can sell at prices it thinks are sensible, all for an additional payment to its rent. It can control its operation in a way it couldn't if it was tied for cask ale, the very thing it has expertise in but which it previously was shackled over.
That Thornbridge finally got the deal it was after is a testament to a number of things. During the protracted negotiations the landscape of the pub sector changed. And with it certain notions of how to do business.
Times are tougher than they were, and the positioning of a number of companies in the industry has shifted accordingly.
A number of pubcos have hundreds if not thousands of underperforming pubs. Yet in the right hands many could do good, possibly even great, business.
But the set-up has to be right. Thornbridge and Enterprise eventually came to an agreement that suits both sides. Such co-operation might have been unthinkable a few years ago, but times have changed.
Pub owners need operators with skill-sets that can cater for today's turbulent market. They can't afford to be as cavalier regarding a potential lessee as was the case in bygone times.
The pub industry needs more people like the Thornbridge Brewery bunch.