Shepherd Neame buys 13 pubs from Punch

http://www.morningadvertiser.co.uk/news.ma/ViewArticle?R=82969

Congratulations due then to Shepherd Neame and Punch; Each benefiting from the continuing but denied melt down of the tied pub trade.

The Shepherd Neame pubs I've been to have managed to turn "the freshest, best quality produce from the finest fisheries, farms, and orchards in the Garden of England" into ordinary pub fodder which looks and tastes like it's been produced by a central food processing and distribution unit and nuked in various items of industrial heating equipment before getting to the punter. I find it distressing that such evidently high corporate investment in what are often gem sites can lead to such mediocre outcomes.

Still, it is reassuring to see that: "Innovation, tradition, sustainable development, individuality and a sense of community are qualities that we [Shepherd Neame] hold dear."

I wonder how much they charge a tied tenant for a case of Beck's.