Punch to reduce leased estate to 5,000

Darren, assuming the pub was returned into the free of tie trade as a pub and not a residential development, at no point did that pub become recorded a statistic, either as a repeatedly failed pub business or a as a pub simply closed for ever. That pub is an unfortunate example of the appalling damage created to the pub trade by the activity of pubcos.

I know of former pubco senior directors who bailed out to set up a considerable estate of tip top end tied pubs using all their accumulated knowledge from their lofty heights at Pubco Towers. Their foray into being 'pub operators' instead of just being 'pointless pint parasites' spanned a very brief period until they realised their huge mistake and that their bold and brave business led them straight into pumping vast amounts of cash straight into their former employer's bondholders' deep pockets. Money going out hand over fist. 'The tie does not work' 'It's impossible to make a profit even with our economies of scale'. 'The beer is too expensive'. 'We never believed our lessees when they said it doesn't work' etc. etc. etc. Yawn. etc.

Now we have Roger Whiteside, a former high street retailer similarly naive to the world of tied pubs juggling with a failed business model revealing exciting new ideas with “entrepreneur and lifestyle development opportunities” by letting pubs to “different types of people” while capping “margin escalation” in his drive to make Punch become "the most trusted and best value pub partnership business"... "A new lease agreement, where tenants can opt for free-of-tie prices in return for higher rent, is also in the pipeline." Maybe they'll call that one 'Swings and Roundabouts' as it continues to fling tenants out of their businesses...

"we’ve got a long way to go" said Roger modestly. Roger. Do you have any idea WHY your estate's beer volume is in decline? Do you have ANY idea why BISC and Healey are snapping at your heels?