Enterprise Inns has been unfairly tarred with the same brush as other pub companies when it comes to promoting routes to market for micro brewers — that's the message from chief operating officer Simon Townsend.
Enterprise now lists 40 beers from 24 SIBA members on its central distribution list amounting to 44,800 barrels a year to 3,313 pubs.
The pubco was also an early adopter of the Direct Delivery Scheme (DDS) in 2004 — through which 363 brewers supply a range of 1,346 beers amounting to 25,300 barrels to 1,593 Enterprise pubs.
Other operators such as Mitchells & Butlers and Scottish & Newcastle Pub Company don't participate in DDS. Punch Taverns is only involved on a small scale.
Enterprise has also recently introduced a guest ale clause on all new agreements, which is limited to SIBA brewers within a 20-mile radius of the pub and recently struck a deal with Thornbridge Brewery to supply all of its own brewed cask ale to the Greystones in Sheffield.
"The range of beers and number of brewers is at an unprecedented high," said Townsend. "We do genuinely believe that cask ale has a massively important role in our business."
Political sense
He added: "If there is one thing I regret — it is having hidden our light under a bushel in a number of areas for too long.
"Our approach has always been to get on with it. Get on with it, do it because our pubs will benefit from the things we are doing and quite frankly we are too busy to trail things, therefore we just get on with it.
"I do feel — not frustrated from one perspective because the more we can do to bring advantages to our business at the expense of our competitors, the more successful we and our pubs will be against them. So that certainly doesn't make me frustrated.
"Politically it hasn't been very sensible for them to take as long as they have to realise the opportunity and the value that local brewers can bring to a business.
"That has not been politically very sensible and I do suspect that that has rubbed off on pub companies in general.
"And being one of the largest pub companies we have been unfairly tarred with that tag.
"But I am very happy with what we do as a demonstration of the value we bring to our pubs and very happy our retailers recognise the benefit.
"At the end of day — political profile, PR profile — it is what it is, it will be what it will be. As long as we are doing the right things for our business and shareholders then quite frankly we will just get on and do it."