Margins still under pressure, says JDW
29-Apr-2008 By Hamish Champ
JD Wetherspoon said today that margins continued to be under pressure from increased costs and bar sales were a cause for concern.In a trading update...
28-Apr-2008 By Ewan Turney
Profits per pub at Whitbread's pub restaurant sites increased by 40%
For the common good
28-Apr-2008 By Hamish Champ
Rightyl or wrongly, stock markets have long been associated more with avarice than environmentally-friendly business practices. But the commercial...
Mark Daniels: I should be greener
28-Apr-2008
You only have to look to the motoring industry to understand what I mean but, whether you believe it or not, environmental issues are here to stay...
Going green again, lights are goin' out...
28-Apr-2008 By Hamish Champ
The environment is an emotive topic. For every person warning that pumping millions of tonnes of industrial crap into the atmosphere is endangering...
Hamish Champ: Blue is very most definitely the colour
28-Apr-2008 By Hamish Champ
Nothing beats being at a football match 'in the flesh' when something truly great happens. I was at Stamford Bridge two years ago when Chelsea beat...
'Deal to buy Regent Inns "weeks away"'
27-Apr-2008
Sun Capital Partners, the private equity firm which bought the Lee Cooper jeans brand in 2005, is one of two companies in detailed talks to acquire...
Premium Bars & Restaurants heads to Manchester
25-Apr-2008 By Hamish Champ
Premium Bars & Restaurants' (PBR) decision to relocate its head office from Newcastle to Manchester will only affect up to five of the office's...
'M&B in discussions with private equity firms'
25-Apr-2008
Mitchells & Butlers is in discussions with private equity investors about the sale of a sizeable stake "at a material premium to the current...
24-Apr-2008 By Ewan Turney
Britain's largest pub company moves to ban Alistair Darling from all of its 8,449 pubs following his devastating budget
24-Apr-2008 By The PMA Team
Punch tenanted boss admits the company had had credibility issues with licensees over some of its BDMs not being good enough
24-Apr-2008 By Ewan Turney
The average Punch tenant makes a profit of £40,000 a year, pubco says
24-Apr-2008 By Peter Linacre
GlassHouse chief executive Peter Linacre considers how the best pubs instill a feeling of inner warmth
The Guv'nor: Kevin Maidens
24-Apr-2008
Why stop at Alistair? Let's ban the lot of 'em, says the licensee of the Blue Bell, Bolsover, Derbyshire
Wells' long-term boost for Mercury
24-Apr-2008 By The PMA Team
Tamworth-based multiple Mercury Inns has re-opened the Old Coach House in Ashby St Ledgers, Daventry, Northants, in a joint investment with Charles...
Punch says Spirit sale is 'no solution' to M&B's ills
24-Apr-2008 By The PMA Team
Talks on takeover of managed division end in acrimony M&B issues coded rebuke to Punch for failure to explore potential Spirit sale The...
Focus Midlands: Middle kingdom
24-Apr-2008
I don't know anyone who calls themselves a Midlander - the region, as a whole, doesn't have that emotive identity. Yet everyone who lives here is...
Focus Midlands: Hobson's Choice
24-Apr-2008
THERE CAN'T be many breweries that had their first successful brew on Easter Sunday (apparently the first attempt on Easter Saturday was a washout)....
Doing their bit
24-Apr-2008 By Hamish Champ
The cost of running a pub, a pub estate, or a brewery is onerous at the best of times. But in today's tough economy operators are more conscious than...
Doing it with Style
24-Apr-2008
Expanding Leeds-based pub operator Suburban Style Bar Company has a reason to make other pubs green with envy. Last year the pubco, which recently...
Punch pledges support for licensees
24-Apr-2008
The managing director of Punch Taverns has defended what she said was a widely-held bad opinion of the company but admitted that it still had a lot...
Clampdown on off-licence opening hours
24-Apr-2008 By James Wilmore
Off-licences in Ireland could be forced to close by 10pm and police given powers to seize alcohol from anyone appearing under 18, under tough new...
Number of closed Punch pubs "marginally higher
24-Apr-2008 By Hamish Champ
Despite the licensed trade experiencing the toughest trading conditions in years, the number of closed pubs across the Punch Taverns estate was only...
Rent concessions rise at Punch Taverns
24-Apr-2008 By Hamish Champ
Punch Taverns, the UK's largest pub operator, has had to increase the number of rent concessions it offers its licensees as market conditions...
Pubs unaware of benefits of going green
24-Apr-2008
Three quarters of small businesses in the UK are blind to the cash-saving benefits of energy efficiency, a leading electricity company has warned.In...
Conman targets busy pubs
24-Apr-2008
Licensees are being warned to be on the lookout for a bogus salesman offering advertising space on heritage pub crawl posters. The conman, who...
24-Apr-2008 By Ewan Turney
ALMR says the Government's plan to get it off the hook over its 10p tax rate fiasco, will increase pub closures
Epic excursion to Bohemia
24-Apr-2008
A band of brothers (so to speak) has completed the longest journey — a visit to the Budweiser Budvar brewery — in the face of almost impossible...
My New Pub
24-Apr-2008
The Royal Oak Lower Farringdon, Hampshire Agent: Howard Day Associates Experienced and well-travelled pub manager Jason Tribe has just taken up the...
Camra: community pubs are answer to bingeing
24-Apr-2008 By MA Reporter
Special task force will build positive evidence A new task group is to be formed to trumpet the community pub. Pubs will be shown as the solution to...
Getting the message out
24-Apr-2008
Mobile-technology firm Eagle Eye Solutions has developed a clever way of drawing in more punters through drinks promotions. Noli Dinkovski reports...
Your say
24-Apr-2008
BII backs MA against alcohol duty hikes I totally support your lead and editorial in the Morning Advertiser dated 10 April. I will certainly ensure...
A fit and proper DPS
24-Apr-2008
Smoke ban rebel Hamish Howitt has highlighted another issue of some importance in licensing: who can object to a designated premises supervisor (DPS)...
Q&A
24-Apr-2008
Friend out of date Q. A friend of my son has set up a retail business and says that he is going to sell packs of beer but without a licence because...
Diary
24-Apr-2008
Budget batters JDW's fish & chips No sooner has City Diary started to enjoy JD Wetherspoon's bargain £2.99 cod and chips afternoon offer (bread...
Host demands PRS refund
24-Apr-2008 By Ewan Turney ewan.turney@william-reed.co.uk
Licensee has 10 days to compile song list An irate licensee has demanded a refund on his music licence fee because bands that play at his pub do not...
MPs urged to back local pubwatches
24-Apr-2008 By John Harrington john.harrington@william-reed.co.u
Letter to every constituency stresses how banning can cut pub and club crime National Pubwatch has written to every MP urging support for grassroots...
Johnson: London needs alcohol czar
24-Apr-2008 By Ewan Turney ewan.turney@william-reed.co.uk
ALMR chief slams the Tory's 'bizarre' idea Tory mayoral candidate Boris Johnson has come under fire for suggesting a London alcohol czar be...
OFT rejects new pubco probe
24-Apr-2008 By John Harrington john.harrington@william-reed.co.u
OFT: lease agreements do not raise concerns Situation "extremely worrying," says MP The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has rejected calls for a new...
Not all plain sailing
24-Apr-2008
Shrewsbury-based Shading by Design has a different story to tell than Breeze House when it comes to gaining planning approval. Director Tony Reynolds...
Moves
24-Apr-2008
Wellstead steps into corporate finance Colin Wellstead, formerly director and head of public houses and restaurants at Christie+Co, has been...
My pub juke box
24-Apr-2008
Ian Payne Chairman of Bay Restaurant Group and Town & City Pub Company, chooses his favourite tracks First record bought: Twisting the Night Away...
23-Apr-2008 By Tony Halstead
The Crown Inn at Maltby-le-Moor, Lincolnshire, proves there is some good news to emerge from the discredited pubco Provence
Pete Robinson: What we can learn from the Germans
23-Apr-2008
The 'business' part of my sojourn was completed mercifully quickly leaving plenty of time to explore some of Germany's finest bars, bierkellers,...
Money well spent
23-Apr-2008
"Our ambition is to be as socially responsible as possible, with the intention of drastically reducing our carbon footprint and eventually becoming...
Greene King fined for food hygiene breaches
23-Apr-2008
Greene King has been fined a total of £14,015 after pleading guilty to seven beaches of food hygiene laws at a Shropshire pub.Environmental health...
22-Apr-2008 By Ewan Turney
Trade Union calls for an end to the practice of using tips to pay the minimum wage
Phil Johnson: Licensees are not police
22-Apr-2008
Once upon a time, not so long ago, I used to march to the pub with a spring in my step eagerly anticipating that first glorious pint and the start of...
Gas caused explosion at Leeds pub
22-Apr-2008
A packed pub in Leeds found itself in the middle of chaotic scenes today when a disused pub on the same road was ripped apart by an explosion. West...
First licensee gives evidence in foreign satellite case
22-Apr-2008 By James Wilmore
The first licensee has given evidence in a High Court clash between the Premier League and foreign satellite suppliers. Tom Wallis, licensee of the...
