Millstone is top JW Lees tenanted pub
A Manchester licensee has credited "good standards" after he was named Tenant of the Year at JW Lees' Pub of the Year awards on 7 June.
Gerard Ford, of The Millstone, in Manchester, picked up the award at the Alderley Edge Hotel in Cheshire, and said: "We have taken a pub which was doing absolutely nothing and turned it around.
"I'd like to credit (business partner) Philip Ainsworth too as we were in this together and he has been in the game for years and is a very experienced licensee.
"It was a very run-down pub and it needed a good cleaning and a few new lightbulbs — a pub needs good standards at the end of the day.
"JW Lees is absolutely fantastic to work with and it has been a pleasure — they have given us everything we need.
"We have been able to take up to £15,000 a week which is brilliant for a small pub like ours.
"We provide entertainment four days a week including an Elvis night on Mondays which goes down an absolute storm."
The other winners were:
• Newcomer of the Year: Gardeners Arms, Sandy Lane, Middleton, Yvonne Kennedy
• Food Pub of the Year: Ship Inn, Wincle near Macclesfield, Michael Hazelton & Cathy Dean
• Marketing Pub of the Year: Red Lion, Blackburn, Lesley Walker
• Cask ale Pub of the Year: New Victorian, Bramhall, Max Kalton
• Cellar of the Year: Hollins Bush, Bury, Judith Sutcliffe
• Customer's Choice Pub of the Year: Pack Horse Inn, Bury, John & Carol Cadwallader
• Manager of the Year: Rose of Lancaster, Chadderton, Oldham, Anthony Walton & Angela Kilduff
• Managed Houses Newcomer of the Year 2011: Spread Eagle Hotel, Lymm, Nick Harris
