Greene King launches new tenancy agreements aimed at attracting fresh talent

The company has renamed its standard tenancy as Touchstone and launched two additional agreements: Touchstone Plus and Access.

Under Touchstone Plus, tenants receive up to £5,000 every three years from Greene King based on the results of mystery-guest visits. Pubs receive three visits per year and cash incentives are aligned to the feedback.

There’s also a cash-back incentive for tenants on non-tied product purchases from Greene King via its Bar Gains bulk-buy scheme, and for overall beer volume sales.

Simon Longbottom, managing director at Greene King’s tenanted and leased arm Pub Partners said: “Touchstone Plus offers support, and rewards for great performance, which of course benefit both our licensees and Greene King.”

The Access agreement, aimed at “highly talented” newcomers to the industry, offers a much lower point of entry, typically £5,000.

Greene King will fund training and pay for their first dray plus legal and accountancy fees. The company will undertake more extensive pre-entry training than the standard four-day requirement.

Longbottom said: “We get quite frustrated at not being able to progress raw talent, particularly younger talent wanting to enter the industry. It’s about widening the gene pool. There are fantastic retailers that don’t have £20,000 to £30,000 to invest in a business but have the talent to make it happen.”

Longbottom added Greene King is seeing an increase in younger applicants, particularly those aged under 30, as well as individuals from other industries who want a change of career.

The idea is that tenants on Access would move to a different tenancy within about three years.
Greene King has also announced the launch of a lease agreement called Horizon, a 10-years-plus lease assignable after two years and crystal-marked by the Plain English Society.

The new agreements will become available on 1 August with the first ‘live’ agreement expected in September.