By Tom Bogdanowicz

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Everyone’s feeling anxious as more of the ConDem government’s plans for licensing are revealed. Consultation on changes contained in the Structural Reform Plan will be carried out over a period of just six weeks, it appears, at a time when most people are on holiday.

As well as a ban on below-cost selling (the impact of which will depend on the definition of ‘cost’) it looks like pub and bar operators will be charged a late-night levy. Most ominously, responsibilities for licensing are being transferred to the Home Office which signals an approach that starts out by seeing pubs as a law and order issue.

PM David Cameron, meanwhile, has included the prospect of local people buying up struggling pubs in his vision of a Big Society. The unlikelihood of substantial resources being made available to do this is just one of the problems.

More at philmellows.com

Enterprising business

Enterprise Inns, which owns some 7,000 pubs around the country, has announced an “improving trend” in its figures. Over the last three months average income per pub has been ‘flat’ compared to a 3% decline in the first quarter of the year. Eighty-six per cent of its pubs are now let, which is good, apparently.

Much of this has been achieved through selling off the worst pubs in the estate. See Phil’ interview with Enterprise boss Ted Tuppen for more analysis.

Tales of two brewers

Controversialist Scottish microbrewer BrewDog has pulled out another shocker with the latest ‘strongest beer ever’, the 55% abv End of History. It costs ￡500 a bottle and has already sold out. Oh, and the bottles come wrapped in a furry animal…

Much nicer to report that Thornbridge, a genuinely creative producer of lovely beer including the magnificant Jaipur IPA, has been named the All Party Parliamentary Beer Group’s Brewer of the Year. Cheers!

A pedigree’s chum

Pub operator Brakspear (it gave up brewing years ago) is offering free dog’s dinners to four-legged customers at two of its houses, the Five Alls at Lechlade, Gloucestershire, and the Catherine Wheel at Goring-on-Thames in, aptly enough, Berkshire.

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We were somewhat surprised to hear about the collapse of the Jack Beards chain of pubs last week. Along with CCT Taverns, both part of the CCT Group, they went into administration with the result that about a third have been returned to landlords.

Part of the group, the Grape and Grain – a well-loved pub in Crystal Palace – has been closed since the announcement. And perhaps unsurprisingly in the current climate, the locals are trying hard to keep it from disappearing forever.

The landlord Rick and his staff have apparently worked hard to turn the pub around since it reopened last year and much affection is felt for them and the resident pub dog Troy.

We’ve had emails from local councilor Ami Ibitson and a pub regular asking us for help and we can hardly say no, now can we? The local website, Virtual Norwood is leading the campaign and a Facebook campaign (which we’ve already joined) has been set up to drum up support for the landlord, aiming to bring the pub back under his control.

So join the Facebook page and do your bit to help keep the Grape and Grain from disappearing into a block of flats or worse.

And, if you know of any pubs that have closed as a result of either Jack Beards and CCT Taverns administration process, let us know.

There were signs of improvement in the pub trade as accountancy firm Price Waterhouse Cooper reported pub insolvencies are down a third having peaked in the last quarter of 2009. Figures are still 10% up on 2008, however, and another report indicated tough times ahead with 42% of people saying they intend to spend less on drinking out in future.
The Coffer Peach Business Tracker, which follows the fortunes of the top 16 pub and restaurant companies, shows sales were up 1.4% in June.

Getting hammered
More pubs are being sold at auction. More than 200 came under the hammer in the first six months of 2010, 38% up on the last since months of 2009, as landlord try to shift their worst-performing houses.

Average price of a pub at auction was up £92,000, though, to £336,000, explained by Enterprise Inns disposing of a number of its bigger pubs this way.

Duty calls
The Treasury has called for consultation with the industry on drinks taxation in preparation for an ‘overhaul’ of the licensing system planned for November 2011.

A growing Wad
Devizes-based Wadworth Brewery reported mixed results with turnover up, but profits down. Behind the figures was a strong performance by the company’s growing managed estate, which has increased its contribution by 14%, and struggling tenancies, which dipped 4%.

Protecting his Joule’s
Steve Nuttall, the marketing man who brought you Caffrey’s back in the 1990s, continues to show that he likes proper beer really by announcing he’s reviving Joule’s Brewery, closed by his old bosses at Bass back in 1972.
Originally in Stone, Staffordshire, the new Joule’s will reopen in Market Drayton, Shropshire, in the Autumn.
Nuttall was also previously involved in Highgate & Walsall Brewery, which sadly closed earlier this month.

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Fancyapint.com has been recommended by Simonseeks.com, a travel website where a community of travellers, journalists, celebrities and experts can share their reviews on different destinations.
 
Kevin Hughes, who is a travel enthusiast, has written a guide called ‘Clowns and classical music at London’s Covent Garden Market’.  In his guide Kevin recommends visiting fancyapint.com to find out more information on pubs in London.  If you would like to find out about hotels in London then visitSimonseeks.comto read some expert reviews!

For centuries the site of an important market Covent Garden has been transformed into a modern, major tourist attraction where street entertainers and musicians add to the bustling market atmosphere.

Sitting on a bench, eyes closed, the enchanting melody of Ravel’s Bolero rises and falls as the smell of freshly brewed coffee competes with the heady aroma of scented candles and freshly cut flowers.
The classical musicians play faultlessly and it’s impossible for your mind not to wander as you dream of embracing a beautiful woman on a moonlit Parisian Street.

But, just as the violins reach the masterpiece’s intense crescendo and at the precise second you are to about taste the warm, tender kiss of your imaginary lover, street entertainer Sham the Bum chooses to noisily announce his arrival at Covent Garden’s Piazza.

Somehow it’s impossible not to be drawn past the candle shop, the flower sellers and the multitude of craft stalls to watch the comic antics of one of Covent Garden’s best street entertainers.

Full article here…

On the third anniversary of the smoking ban in England, a dozen MPs are backing calls for a review of the legislation with the hope of allowing smoking rooms in pubs.

Only last week the government ditched plans to review the smoke ban in the autumn but the Early Day Motion from Brian Binley, Tory MP for Northampton South, calls for ventilated, segregated smoking areas to improve business at pubs and clubs.

A survey among readers of pub trade weekly the Morning Advertiser showed three-quarters of publicans would be in favour of smoking rooms.

Meanwhile, a Private Member’s Bill from Nigel Adams, Conservative MP for Selby and Ainsty, aims to make it more difficult for pubs to be demolished.

Punch softens the blow

Earnings per pub at pubco giant Punch continue to fall. Latest figures are down an average 5% in the 44 weeks to June. But the company is pleased that only 200 of its pubs are currently closed – with its support for licensees it believes the figure would be close to 1,000. It has so far this year sold 777 houses raising £263m to pay of its debts, which now amount to just £3.2bn.

Big plans

Among regional brewers, Hertford-based McMullen is on the expansion trail despite trading being slightly down – thanks, it says, to the bad weather early in the year. It’s looking for large sites it can run under management, to add to its 55 tenancies.

There was less cheerful news from Blackburn, however, where Danial Thwaites reported pre-tax profits are down nearly 50%.

Just popped in for a couple…

The Full Moon in Morton, Nottinghamshire, is looking for couples who want to get married in its bid to host a record 10 weddings in a day at a pub. The mass nuptials are set to take place on a magical date – the 10th day of the 10th month, 2010.

One thing’s for sure. The vicar’s going to need a drink after that.

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Last month, the Duke of Hamilton’s regulars, concerned local residents, members of CAMRA and local councillors Linda Chung and Chris Knight gathered in front of the pub in Hampstead to start a campaign to prevent the pub’s closure and conversion into housing.

We’ve just found out that the deadline for filing objections has been extended until the 12th of July, for email objections, at least. So go email your objections today before this pub disappears into yet another lot of apartments.

More information on what to do at www.savetheduke.com and join the facebook page – we have!

More from CAMRA’s press release

Campaigners needed no encouragement after walking along adjacent Heath Street and seeing the destruction already meted out to pubs in the street – The Nags Head now an estate agents, The Horse and Groom, still clearly signed but now a restaurant, Gertie Browns at the Coach and Horses now an anonymous office building and a stroll further north, also still signed but long lost as a pub, Jack Straw’s Castle. 

CAMRA North London Chairman John Cryne on 07802 174861

As it announced profits up 4%, Suffolk-based brewer Greene King revealed plans to slash the size of its tenanted pub estate by 20%, bringing numbers down to 1,200 by 2015. Behind the restructuring is the view that food is the future. The company will increase its managed estate by 10% over the same period, and these bigger pubs will be food-led.

Orchid blossoms

Among other results, Orchid Group is already seeing an emphasis on food pay dividends. A 2.7% increase in sales across its 300 pubs in the last quarter includes a 5.5% rise in food. CEO Rufus Hall puts it down to “improvements in quality” and wants to add another 50 houses to the estate this year and another 100 in 2011.

Meanwhile profits at Cornish brewer St Austell are up 9.6% driven by draught ale in its pubs, up 18%. Nearly seven in ten pints are now Tribute. Yorkshire’s Timothy Taylor showed a modest advance, too, increasing profits by 1.7%.

‘Spoons ladles on the growth

This month will see J D Wetherspoon adding a dozen pubs to its estate at a cost of ￡12.5m as the company gets back on its former expansion track. Its previous big growth spurt also came during a recession.

Recipes for success

Four customers of Ember Inns have won a competition to have their own beers on sale in the Mitchells & Butlers pub chain. Each designed their own recipe with the help of a regional brewer, and if you want to look out for them they are:

Adnams Winners Ale (Maurice Terrell)
Bateman’s Daddy’s Little Fella (Darren Short)
Ringwood Sovereign Smuggler (Aimee Ryan)
Thwaites Tale Wagger (Dr Peter Asquith-Cowen)

Relief… and a wee problem

And now for a more serious subject – toilets. Three Gloucester pubs have joined a ‘community toilet scheme’ in which they’re being paid a one-off ￡600 to open their toilets to passers-by in urgent need. Lambeth and Richmond councils are looking at similar initiatives.

Which won’t impress Edinburgh City Council which is threatening to limit the capacities of pubs and clubs according to how many toliets they have. Operators are protesting at a suggested limit of one toilet for every 30 customers.

www.philmellows.com
The Politics of Drinking… and more
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Fancyapint spent an enjoyable evening at the House of Lords last night – once we got in, as there were four large events taking place inside the Palace of Westminster – at the Parliamentary Reception for the Best Bar None awards scheme.

Lord Redesdale, Chairman of Best Bar None, was on fine form and welcomed representatives from all the local schemes as well James Brokenshire MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary Of State plus representatives from the media, sponsors of the scheme and the drinks trade to the second such event, following the success of last year’s reception.
Held in the Peers Dining Room, the dark panelling and paintings of past Lords made for a very opulent setting — we don’t often get to visit places with this much history, it’s a stunning place.

Once the initial speeches had been made, Bruce Ray, Director of External Affairs for Bacardi Brown-Forman and the sponsor of the event, introduced the six finalists for best pub or bar in the UK for 2010 before announcing the winners, The Frog and Parrott in Sheffield city centre. We’ll definitely have to get there next time we’re up north.

We’ve been supporting Best Bar None for a number of years now and are working with several schemes in London to raise the profile of the scheme. The scheme originated in Manchester with the City Centre Safe project run by the police force, it has now been expanded to the rest of the UK to encourage pubs, bars and clubs to operate at a higher standard by offering a yearly accreditation as well as awards for the best premises in each local authority.

The results in areas participating in the scheme are very encouraging — and anything that makes going out a better experience is worth supporting in our book. To that end, we’ll be working to include information on local schemes, where we have it, and have added a section on Best Bar None to our visitor’s guide.

Congratulations to the Frog and Parrot and to all the pubs that have successfully been accredited through Best Bar None!

A recent article in the Observer caught our eye about yet more plans to penalise the pub industry for its existence.

Plans are afoot by our new government to introduce a “law and order” fee applicable to any licensed premises staying open after 11pm. This would be part of a further reaching plan to dismantle round-the-clock-drinking – as if that happens. Can you name a pub that stays open later than midnight or one o’clock? We only know of a handful in London and that’s six years on from the launch of extended hours.

We particularly like this:

“Ministers want to stem the proliferation of bars that occurred under Labour’s liberalisation of the licensing regime, particularly targeting those deemed by police to be a source of trouble in town and city centres.”

Okay, the move to 24-hour drinking didn’t have quite the effect the previous government expected – rather than have an instant European style cafe culture in the UK, it seems we just have more problems as people can get pissed for longer.

This is not a new thing, as apparently the English have been getting blind drunk since the 12th century or before (drink is apparently being blamed for the loss at the battle of Hastings – the troops were too hung over to fight properly). So how can anyone expect a culture change reversing over a thousand years of drinking happen overnight?

While we can’t dispute the facts, it appears that councils aren’t actually helping to solve the problems. Creating the much lauded “Alcohol Disorder Zones” was some bright spark’s idea for containing the problem – only allow licensed premises in a particular part of a town or city to be open late, don’t stagger licenses and then make sure there’s lots of pissed people in the same place at once. That’s not a recipe for a fight if we’ve ever heard one.

And everyone we speak to in licensing or enforcement – we come into contact with police officers on a regular basis through our involvement in Best Bar None – think it’s a ridiculous idea and doomed to cause exactly the problems we’ve got now.

So what’s the way forward? It seems dangerous to tax an already over-burdened sector of the business community with yet more charges, particularly when the experiment with 24-hour drinking has only really just started. If anything it’s more likely to force us back to the bad old days when every necks 10 pints at closing time and then goes out to have a fight and a dance in a club.

We’re more than a little aware of the fact that everyone’s budgets are being cut and the police can’t afford to keep policing late night trouble spots. But seriously, if we had a bit of patience and were just a little cleverer about this licensing game (and didn’t artificially create the problems we’re seeing) this experiment just might work…