In
twenty years I've met LOADS of tied publicans who've told me they are
'doing alright'. I touch on that in that CAMRA film I'm interviewed in -
even before I signed the lease on my pub in 1995 I was suspicious of
the tie and did a lot of homework and tracked down five Inntrepreneur
lessees - all of them doing something along the lines of what I intended
with the pub I was taking on - they were all in the press, reviewed in
Time Out, considered modern, with-it businesses run by modern with-it
owners, all had independent catering backgrounds like mine, in the West
End, - and I asked them about the tie, the relationship with the
freeholder and so on. All but one of them said 'we're doing OK'
'everything seems alright' and much of a muchness. The ONE who was
different said the tie made margins very tight that you HAVE to be on
top of stock and pricing all the time and tight everywhere in the
operation. He was the MD of a company that had three tied leases and
some health spas and some pub freeholds. He saw my business plan and
even offered to invest and be a shareholder in my business, it sounded
more like a reverse takeover to me and I waved it aside.
Subsequently
ALL of those businesses faded away, every last one went bust became
toast died down the line. Even the corporate one who warned me was
squeezed out by rent reviews and beer prices screwing their margins. And
in the end I lasted longer than any of them in my pub.
It nearly killed me though and left a lifelong trail of damage.
Still. I'm an optimist and always believe there's an upside, no matter how deep the gutter you slipped into appears.
That
early experience was indicative of what would happen through the whole
of my tenure in the tied pub sector. I spent years asking around
publicans about their experiences - rarely do you find anyone who's
prepared to admit to being totally shafted by their circumstances in a
tied pub. Most say 'we're doing OK' hardly anyone is open about the
situation. The few I met who were frank about it became founder members
of Fair Pint. Others, some I've known for years before they got into
pubs, refused to join Fair Pint for fear of being singled out as
troublemakers by their pubco. Some of them have been evicted, gone bust
or have been fire fighting for the last few years.
Against
that experience I've met several tenants who've managed the tie well -
invested in a new pub business, built it up to 500 plus barrels a year
then sold it before their first rent review. These are the ONLY people I
know who've not been brought down by the tie - and they all got out of
tied businesses asap. However: The people who bought their leases ALL
went down the toilet.
Simple.
#thebeertiekillspubs
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