Pubs are seeing a significant switch of customers turning to high-end drinks and increasing spend per serve, according to Budweiser Brewing Group (BBG UK&I) on-trade director Jean-David Thumelaire.
Jackie Moody-McNamara is a mentor as well as a critical friend, strengths coach and growth facilitator to numerous boards, specialising in strategy, leadership and accelerating the career progression of talented women, who has looked at how the industry...
Against a backdrop of rocketing price rises, rampant inflation, and closures and sales, it’s been interesting being on the road for the Publican Awards judging this week.
For the last few years, it feels like the hospitality sector has been thwarted in every direction, no matter how efficiently we run our businesses, and operating a pub/restaurant with rooms has never been harder.
Karen Tyrell smiles and shrugs as though the answer is so obvious the question really wasn’t worth asking. “Well, yes, I go to pubs. They’re nice places to be, aren’t they?” she says, sure that no one could doubt it.
As January makes way for February and the colder miserable months continue to bite, pubs will be eager to look for ways to drive punters over the threshold.
By David Bentley, licensee, the Old Bowling Green, Winster, Derbyshire
As a result of the 1989 Beer Orders, I was able to have my pick of pubs for sale in 1990 and fell in love with a 15th century hostelry in the centre of a small village, high in the hills of a national park.
For many of us, pubs are a mainstay of daily life – a regular hangout for meeting friends, a post-work haunt for colleagues or a venue for sports, live music or comedy.
Writing and compiling stories for The Cask Project has led me to believe the under-threat category of cask ale could be improved vastly with a handful of changes.
The news that the UK appears to have dodged the recessionary bullet in 2022 thanks to unexpected growth in November was a welcome bit of news for economy watchers.
One of the things learned from talking to stakeholders in developing the pubs code adjudicator’s (PCA) three-year strategy is that people still have different expectations of the PCA.
By Mark Bentley, on-trade category controller, Molson Coors
Molson Coors on-trade category controller Mark Bentley reflects on the history and provenance of cider and why pubs, bars and restaurants should make more of the category’s versatility.
By Philip Smith, the Lord Smith of Hindhead CBE and chief executive of the Association of Conservative Clubs
Recent figures from the Office of National Statistics show hospitality has 174,000 vacancies. These staff shortages are growing, and hospitality businesses face rising input costs, as operators compete for staff, as well as causing one in three hospitality...
Given the chaos of the past few years and the challenges pub and bar operators face going forward, we can be forgiven for hoping to be allowed to enjoy a reasonable Christmas trade before the realities of the new year bite.
Admiral Taverns chief executive Chris Jowsey believes community wet-led pubs are going to be able weather the storms of the next 12 months more admirably than most so long as they provide great value and make every visit something to remember.
By Joe Cussens, managing director, The Bath Pub Company
The pub industry is facing a crisis the like of which we have never seen - rocketing costs and falling consumer confidence make the challenge of pandemic look like the good old days.
In my role as pubs code adjudicator (PCA), I meet with a whole range of people across the industry to promote the pubs code and deliver my message of compliance, whether that is talking with tied tenants, with the regulated pub companies, or with others...
While most businesses hit the wall during the pandemic, Sarah Willingham saw there was a pent-up demand for socialising in hospitality together with a power shift towards tenants from landlords and decided to form Nightcap to get the party started.
If ever there was a time for action, it is now, yet our industry sits paralyzed by the inaction and indecision of Government as businesses burn all around it.
By Gav Young, the Plough and Barleycorn, Isle of Wight
It is probably because I am not an accountant or a multinational brewery that I have some issues with the recent mid-year price rise announcement from one of the big brewers.
By Jess Magill, founder & orchestrator, Powderkeg Beer
A few years back it became a running joke among our brewery team as to who could define craft beer. It’s such a notoriously slippery concept that no one wanted to attempt it, especially not in print.
I was grateful for the opportunity to appear before a parliamentary select committee this week, to give evidence about the progress of the pubs code in bringing fairness to the tied relationship in the regulated pub trade.
They say that everything goes in cycles. When I started on The Morning Advertiser seven dim-and-distant years ago (I was young once), the talk was all of how the wet-led pub’s demise was imminent.
By Sacha Lord, night-time economy adviser for Greater Manchester
After it emerged that he is spending half a million pounds of taxpayers’ money on a focus group vanity exercise to try to repair his battered image, the Chancellor has finally come forward with a package of support to help people struggling to pay their...
Two decades ago, a line in Gordon Brown’s Budget sparked the craft beer revolution. On the birthday of Progressive Beer Duty we ask ‘Is Rishi Sunak setting up the UK’s independent brewers for another two decades of success?’
By Seb Heeley-Wiggins, the Spirit of Manchester Distillery co-founder
Last year, amid the turmoil of the hospitality sector, we made a choice to plough a significant investment into a roto-vap allowing us to distil under pressure and at lower temperatures.
