Enterprise and others trial i-draught

A number of major pub companies, including Enterprise Inns, are trialling the Brulines i-draught technology that has been a major success in the Greene King tenanted estate.

Greene King's chief executive Rooney Anand has called i-draught "EPOS for beer" and a number of tenants with the system installed have praised its usefulness.

Brulines said the system is "producing excellent feedback from licensees who value its ability to monitor the quality and yield of beer served, providing valuable intelligence about their business to help improve beer quality, manage wastage and costs on all draught products".

It is understoood that around two-thirds of the Greene King tenanted estate currently has i-draught installed.

Brulines chief executive James Dickson said i-draught provides "the information that allows licensees and pubcos to work together to improve the prospects of individual sites".

I-draught is also currently installed at around 150 sites operated by individual licensees and small managed multiples, including bar and backpacker hostel company Beds & Bars.

Brulines reported that it currently has just under 21,000 beer flow monitoring installations across the pub sector.

The number is down by 1,100 pubs as sites have been sold — but there have been 595 new i-draught installations in the company's six months to 1 October this year to mitigate the decline.

Brulines saw turnover increase by 23.9% in the first half to £12.27m with profit before tax up 2.8% at £1.95m after exceptional items of £200,000.

The company also unveiled the acquisition of Amscreen M2M for £2m this morning — it is involved in delivering next-generation data collection and monitoring platforms.