Operations

A marketing plan can really help your pub

A marketing plan can really help your pub

By Gerry Price

The sun is shining, people are smiling and my glass feels half full. I am trying to make time for this year’s promotions plan. There are so many excuses to have a party, such as St George’s Day, the Ascot races, the village fête, and, of course, Christmas.

Vitesse Noir condemned by Portman Group

Vitesse Noir condemned by Portman Group

By Adam Pescod

An 11% ABV beer called Vitesse Noir has breached alcohol responsibility rules for making claims about the stimulating effects of the product on its packaging.

Marketing tips: The rules of attraction

Marketing tips: The rules of attraction

By Alastair Scott

I watched Billy Elliot last week — I know I’m a bit behind, but I always wait until the DVD is £4 in the supermarket. When I watched it I realised how much life has changed in a generation.

Tips on how to surrender a lease

Tips on how to surrender a lease

There are no established written rules for surrendering a lease. Surveyor Simon Clarke gives advice and answers some vital questions

The Big Interview: Tim Woodrow

The Big Interview: Tim Woodrow

By Phil Mellows

It’s a toss-up as to who’s going to miss who the most when Tim Woodrow retires from Palmers later this year. With 45 years in the industry behind him, and the past quarter-century and more with the Dorset firm, Woodrow is going to have to play an awful...

Lamb’s pubco-tenant vision

Lamb’s pubco-tenant vision

By Michelle Perrett

In an exclusive interview with Michelle Perrett, the Minister for Employment Relations, Consumer & Postal Affairs, Norman Lamb, explains his approach to the pubco-tenant issue and his opposition to an independent panel to monitor the self-regulation...

Track and feed: Planning for the Olympics

Track and feed: Planning for the Olympics

By Lesley Foottit

Britain has long had a poor reputation for its food, drink and hospitality in the wider world, but the tie-up between British Food Fortnight (BFF) and the Olympics this summer (27 July to 12 August) gives us the opportunity to prove them all wrong.

Six steps to becoming a multiple pub operator

Six steps to becoming a multiple pub operator

By Phil Mellows

So you think you’ll make a good multiple operator? As Scottish & Newcastle Pub Company narrows down the common factors behind what works in its estate, Phil Mellows asks questions about acquiring that difficult second pub

Minor miracles

Minor miracles

By Jessica Harvey

Children are given special attention at the Bolingbroke in south-west London. Mark Reynolds, who co-owns Renaissance Pubs with his friends Tom Peake and Nick Fox, tells Jessica Harvey about how to get families through the door.

PPL chief defends plans to raise fees

PPL chief defends plans to raise fees

By Gurjit Degun

Anyone who demands money from you is never going to be popular. In a struggling economy it’s even worse — utility cost increases are never ending, rents are harder to negotiate and business rates have a habit of rising just when you think you are up to...

Cracking opportunities: Making the most of Easter

Cracking opportunities: Making the most of Easter

By Sheila McWattie

Pubs can go hell for leather to increase takings over the forthcoming Easter weekend by staging themed activities and ensuring their food and drink offer ticks the right box. Sheila McWattie report.

Precision marketing

Precision marketing

By Alastair Scott

To avoid wasting time and money, and upsetting customers, your promotions need thorough planning, says Alastair Scott.

Capture customers — and don’t let them go

Capture customers — and don’t let them go

By Phil Davison

Leaving your customers in charge of your relationship is a recipe for disaster. Your customers are certainly not as motivated as you are to make your pub successful, so if you want to see your profits grow you need to put yourself in the driving seat.

Keep your eye on the ball

Keep your eye on the ball

By Mike Berry

They think it’s all over... it is now for Karen Murphy. The final whistle has blown on her six-year legal battle against her conviction for using foreign satellite services to show live Premier League football in her Portsmouth pub, the Red, White &...

Making the most of St Patrick's Day

Making the most of St Patrick's Day

By Sheila McWattie

For those willing to put in the hard yards and prepare for it, St Patrick’s Day can provide licensees with one of the busiest days of their year. Sheila McWattie reports.

Murphy case: Copyright issue left open

Murphy case: Copyright issue left open

By MIchelle Perrett

Licensees showing Premier League football games without copyright material “would appear” to not be liable for prosecution, claims the PMA’s legal editor Peter Coulson.

Men jailed for £5m keg theft plot

Men jailed for £5m keg theft plot

By Adam Pescod

Five men from the Midlands have been handed jail sentences totalling 14-and-a-half years for their part in a plot to steal £5 million worth of beer kegs from across the region.

Drinkaware campaigns change drinking behaviour

Drinkaware campaigns change drinking behaviour

By Adam Pescod

Alcohol awareness charity Drinkaware says all three of its 2011 campaigns have exceeded expectations and led to a change in drinking behaviour across its target audiences.

Murphy wins case against Premier League

Murphy wins case against Premier League

By Adam Pescod

Portsmouth landlady Karen Murphy has claimed victory today in her long-running legal battle with the Premier League over foreign satellite football.

Clear cut advantage

Clear cut advantage

Unless you are a student and beans-on-toast represents the sum total of your culinary abilities, nobody would choose to have the same meal every night. But that does not stop pub chefs putting the same dishes on their menus up and down the country

Don’t leave your front line exposed

Don’t leave your front line exposed

By Michael Kheng

It is interesting that the Security Industry Authority (SIA) is visiting licensees and authorities warning of the possibility of a shortage of door supervisors during the 2012 Olympics. As reported in last week’s PMA, G4S looks set to recruit around 10,000...

Pub Mentors: Softs put fizz into business

Pub Mentors: Softs put fizz into business

Executing ‘brilliant basics’ on soft drinks and using targeted promotional activity to drive new footfall were the two key areas that lessees Duncan and Natalie Entwistle and I talked about on my first visit to their pub, the Greets Inn in Warnham, West...

Pub Mentors: Making Greet strides

Pub Mentors: Making Greet strides

By Phil Davison

As my three-month mentoring programme with the Greets Inn comes to an end, it is wonderful to reflect on how far Duncan and Natalie have come in such a short space of time. I believe we have achieved all we set out in our action plan — and more.

Doorstaff Games alarm

Doorstaff Games alarm

By Mike Berry

Earlier this month, a diktat was sent to Whitehall departments by Government spin doctors, effectively ordering them to produce three good news stories a day in the run up to this summer’s Olympic Games.

Big bucks: Door staff could be tempted by Olympics

Pubs face Games security chaos

By Michelle Perrett

Pubs and bars across the country could face a security nightmare this summer as doorstaff are lured away to make “big bucks” during the Olympics.

Tom Palmer: Another victory down to character

Tom Palmer: Another victory down to character

We certainly won’t have been handed too many laurel wreaths to us for our performance in Rome on Saturday but we eventually prevailed against a stubborn Italian side who, it must be remembered, defeated World Cup finalists France in last year’s RBS 6...

Pub Mentors: The Elephant makes its mark

Pub Mentors: The Elephant makes its mark

By Phil Davison

On a return visit to the Elephant in Bristol, trade consultant Alastair Scott, who runs Catton Hospitality, discovers that licensees Ben Bartrip and Sarah Eskins have been hard at it implementing many of his suggestions.

The Big Interview: Marco Pierre White

The Big Interview: Marco Pierre White

By Matt Moggridge

Marco Pierre White tells Matt Moggridge about the role of aspirations and frozen peas in successful food-pub development.

What’s hot in gastro land?

What’s hot in gastro land?

By Lesley Foottit

Lesley Foottit explores the emerging trends in gastropubs and pinpoints what we can expect in 2012.

Tom Palmer: 'Character and team spirit see us through'

Tom Palmer: 'Character and team spirit see us through'

By Tom Palmer

With so many new faces in the England squad for the 2012 Six Nations campaign ( making the average age of the players 25 ) plus a new coaching team in place led by Stuart Lancaster it was no surprise to us all that the approach to preparation for the...

Pub Mentors: Soft sell pays dividends

Pub Mentors: Soft sell pays dividends

Martin Sampson, out of home shopper marketing controller at Coca-Cola Enterprises, keeps tabs on his protégés’ progress at the College Arms. Stratford.

The Big Interview: Roy Ellis

The Big Interview: Roy Ellis

By Lesley Foottit

Inventive Leisure has consistently expanded its business for more than 20 years. Chief executive Roy Ellis tells Lesley Foottit how he weathers the storms and keeps the brand fresh.

Pub Mentors: Graduation day

Pub Mentors: Graduation day

When Jay Smith, owner of Montey’s Rock Cafe in York and Harrogate and star of TV’s Save Our Boozer, made a return visit to the College Arms at Lower Quinton, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, he found that owners Jo Arevalo and Marilyn Herdman had been...

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