Independent Operators

Charity: softly-softly approach is gone

Kid gloves off, iron fist out

By The PMA Team

The Government's damagingly absolutist guidance ironically undermines the Community Pubs Inquiry's sensible suggestions to help ailing pubs, says The PMA Team.

Profits drop

Coors' profits drop 78.3%

By The PMA Team

Carling brewer Coors, the UK's second-largest brewer with a 21% market share, saw pre-tax profits drop 78.3%, from £68.01m in 2006 to £14.75m in...

Camra: LocAle success

Camra hails LocAle success

By Ewan Turney

But the organisation says the beer tie is hindering attempts to get all pubs to stock a local ale.

The Walnut Tree

Sheps invests £3m in its pubs

By John Harrington

Kent brewer and pub operator Shepherd Neame is to invest £3m over the next year "to help see its licensees through the economic downturn".  The...

One in six pubs are missing out on rate relief

One in six losing out on rate relief

By Gemma McKenna

About one in six pubs in England and Wales are failing to claim £6.9m of Small Business Rate Relief — according to data from small business campaign group Leaseholders United.

Bulter (L) and Thornton (R) have launched Mercury Liquid to help distressed assets

Mercury launches pub recovery arm

By Ewan Turney

Pub operator Mercury Inns has launched a new recovery service for failing groups of pubs — Mercury Liquid will work with receivers to improve distressed assets.

Advancing on plastic

Advancing on plastic

By Hamish Champ

Pub licensees, along with every other taxpayer in the UK, are now shareholders in the country's leading banks, thanks to the government's recent...

Good news anyone?

Good news anyone?

By Hamish Champ

Another week, another set of depressing economic surveys. I know I contribute to the increasing sense of gloom, doom and despondency by repeating the...

Mokoko: landmark victory

Landmark pub noise victory

By MA Reporter

Courts can take into consideration that residents who complain about noise at pubs knew it was there before they moved in, a High Court judge has ruled in a landmark case.

Pubs face tough new restrictions

New pub crackdown...it gets worse

By John Harrington

Bans on selling alcohol at weekends, doormen and CCTV at every point of sale and briefings for staff at every shift are all advised by Government at first pub licence review.

Pring: Community Pub Inquiry witnesses regularly told MPs about disproportionate red tape affecting community pubs

Regulation is strangling our pubs

By Andrew Pring

As licensees spend a day and a half per week dealing with bureaucracy, an excellent report from the All-Party Parliamentary Beer Group engages with the gritty reality of pub life, says Andrew Pring.

100 Admiral pubs up for grabs

100 Admiral Taverns pubs hit the market

By The PMA Team

A tranche of 100 pubs, understood to belong to Admiral Taverns, has been put on to the market — many at massively reduced prices.

Asda: offering customers value?

Asda: deep discounting in our DNA

By Ewan Turney

Supermarket giant has defended its right to offer huge discounts on alcohol at a Westminster Health Forum debate.

Collyer: pubcos have to be creative

Dealing with troubled sites

By Geof Collyer

Pubcos will have to become more creative with their bottom-end pubs in the current climate, argues Geof Collyer.

Pring: national campaign is needed

Man the guns on a burning deck

By Andrew Pring

What kind of pub novice devises the Government's anti-alcohol proposals? The trade faces a fierce fight against the oncoming tide of red tape, says Andrew Pring.

BDM visits could become a thing of the past

Licensees must be trained to run pubs

By Tony Halstead

Business development managers could become an endangered species if licensees received better training and modern IT business support.

PASS: should be accepted more readily

SIA criticised over support of ID cards

By Tony Halstead

The Security Industry Association (SIA) has been rapped for a half-hearted acceptance of the licensed trade's Proof Of Age Standards Scheme (PASS) identity card.

Premium Bars is holding fire on new sites

Premium's new openings on hold

By The PMA Team

Premium Bars and Restaurants has put the opening of new Living Room sites on hold as it "hunkers down" in the face of ferocious market conditions....

Wine: no more topping up glasses

Nanny-state nightmare

By John Harrington

It's late 2009 and Joe Licensee is getting ready for opening night at his new pub, the Red Lion in Anytown. Staff have been hired, drinks ordered and...

Follow us

Property of the week

Pub Trade Guides

View more

Webinars

The Lock In Pub Podcast