Enterprise Inns tenant to hold ‘draught wake’ to mark end of the pub selling draught beer

Brian Mannion, of the Black Lion in Kilburn, north-west London, said that, from 1 June, he will focus on selling bottled beers, wine, spirits and food because he claims Enterprise is charging him too much for draught beer.

The event will see a keg being carried out of the pub in a coffin.

Mannion bought the freehold of the pub from Enterpise in 2011 at auction on a sale-and-leaseback basis. As part of this deal, Enterprise pays Mannion £80,000 a year in rent and he, in turn, pays the pubco £50,000 a year in rent. Enterprise also collects additional wet rent through the beer tie.

“On analysing the prices of what we could buy our beer for in the free-trade, we are paying 66% more than a free-of-tie licensee,” said Mannion.

“It’s grossly unfair. If pubcos think they are being fair, they should give licensees the chance of going free-of-tie.

“I don’t want to do this anymore. It’s time to make a stand. If all tied pubs made a stand and did this for a week to make people aware of the situation, it could change the pubcos’ mentality.

Mannion added that his customers think it is a “drastic” move but he maintains this is a way of educating them about tied prices. He said it’s “inevitable” that the pub will lose out on trade.

Enterprise Inns declined to comment.