Drinkers who dare to drive home from the pub should watch out this month. Police have launched a crackdown that promises roadside testing at all times of the day or night and on all types of road.

Last year a similar initiative stopped more than 100,000 drivers and 5.6% of them tested positive or refused to blow into the bag.

Hall of fame

Orchid pubs chief Rufus Hall has been invited by the United Nations, no less, to address it on the question of social responsibility.

The pubco, which has nearly 300 outlets across the UK, is big on community campaigns and encouraging its staff to support local charities.

I interviewed Hall last year. Feel almost touched by fame.

Three for the ladies

Under its BitterSweet Partnership project brewing giant Molson Coors is to launch a range of three beers designed to appeal to women.

Why three? Simon Cox, the company’s independent on-trade director, has had a shrewd insight. “Not all women are the same,” he said.

Free food!

Not quite the same appeal as free beer but you have to be grateful to Yates’s which is giving away a cheese burger and chips this month to punters who sign up to its website.

So if you’re feeling peckish log on at www.weareyates.co.uk.

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Family brewers, it seems, are having mixed success in battling difficult economic circumstances.

Everards improved proifits by 2.1% in the year to September 2010 despite a fall in turnover of 4.7%. The Leicester-based firm has called it right with its Project William initiative which lets pubs to microbrewers and allows them to sell their own beer.

Meanwhile, South Wales brewer Brains has failed to hit targets, posting a fall in profits and turnover for the same period.
While sales at its managed houses increased 1.5% in the year, tenancies were 5% down, and its own ale volumes plummeted 13%.

Young and healthy

Young’s decision a few years back to close its Wandsworth brewery to concentrate on pubs appears to be paying off as the company reported a 7.1% increase in profits in the year to April.

A big boost has come from 26 Geronimo Inns pubs, which Young’s bought at the end of last year, but trading has also improved on its tenanted estate where sales are up 1.2%.

My interview with Young’s chief executive Stephen Goodyear.

A Grand performance

Two London pub operators with a somewhat shorter history than Young’s are also finding success. Profits at the Grand Union chain are a whopping 60% up on revenues topping £9 million a year across 11 sites. A 12th Grand Union, at Paddington, opened earlier this month.

And licensee Martin Hayes is to roll out his Cask Pub & Kitchen concept following the success of his Pimlico pub. A second Cask Pub & Kitchen will open in Clerkenwell in June and boast the biggest range of craft beers in the country with 16 handpumps and 21 taps for international brews.

If Carlsberg closed breweries…

Controversial Lib Dem MP Greg Mulholland has called on pub-goers in his Leeds constituency to boycott Carlsberg’s products over the brewing giant’s plans for the city’s Tetley’s plant, set to close in June.

Mulholland has also tabled an Early Day Motion on the question.

No love for Valentine

Campaign for Real Ale chairman Colin Valentine has got himself into a spot of bother with beer bloggers by claiming that they are trying to get people to drink keg rather than cask ale.

Camra earned better press, though, for its decision to back pub trade mag Morning Advertiser’s Thrive on Five campaign which aims to cut VAT on food sold in pubs to 5%.

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The campaign for 5% VAT on pub food has moved up a gear following the Irish government’s decision to drop the rate in the hospitality sector from 14.5% to 9%.

Encouraged, too, by Jacques Borel, the man behind France’s VAT cut, saying Britain could do the same by 2014, membership of the ‘Thrive on Five’ Facebook group suddenly surged past the 800 mark. You can join in and sign the petition here.

Pubco prises 1% growth

Performance at Britain’s biggest pubco, Enterprise Inns, has stabilised over the last six months, the company reported. Average net income grew by 1% in February and March, although a lot depend on where you are in the country, with northern pubs down 2%.

In common with other tenanted pubcos Enterprise is experimenting with more flexible agreements for its licensees. It now has 94 free-of-tie deals and has introduced a ‘managed tenancy’ agreement in which the company has a greater say over the running of the business.

Solids performance

Mitchells & Butlers, the pubco that brought you All Bar One, Ember Inns and the Toby Carvery, announced that its food sales have overtaken drinks sales for the first time.

It reflects the company’s explicit strategy which saw it sell 333 of its wettest pubs last year. It also suggests we’re not quite the boozers we’re sometimes cracked up to be.

Bon giorno for Peroni

Peroni Nastro Azzuro, the expensive lager from Italy, continues to fuel growth in the UK for global brewing giant SAB Miller. Peroni’s volumes were up 21% in the year, driven by draught, and the company managed an overall increase in beer sales of 23%, helped along by brancs such as Pilsner Urquell and Tyskie.

Meanwhile Carlsberg is launching Spanish brew Mahou in the UK. Mahou is Real Madrid’s official beer and on the bar pretty much everywhere you go in the capital.

They’ve got Mayall

Wells & Young’s Brewery has recruited Rik Mayall to star as an unlikely Bombardier in its new £4m ad campaign for its eponymous ale.

It’s quite amusing, actually.

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True to their word – for once – MPs are reopening the inquiry into pub companies and the way they operate the ‘tie’ that forces their tenants to buy beer and other products from them, at their prices.
The last lot of hearings, in front of a Business, Innovation and Skills committee, closed in March 2010, and the pubcos were told to go away and get their act together by June 2011.
Now they are being called back, and with fresh hearings in June and July we’ll see whether they’ve done enough to satisfy the committee. Here’s what I reckon.

Giving it some
Pub customers raised more than £100million for charity in 2010 research has revealed. Until now we always know how important pubs were for charities but putting a figure on it was guesswork. A body called PubAid has put that right by phoning up a sample of 1,500 pubs and asking them.
An amazing 667 charities benefited from the cash with the most popular being Help for Heroes, the Air Ambulance, the RNLI and cancer charities.

Scots opt for dearer booze shock
There were many repercussions from the recent elections, and among them is the likelihood that we’ll see proper minimum alcohol pricing in Scotland. The SNP, which swept to a surprise victory, is committed to the measure and has already announced that it aims to introduce it within the year.
Some sections of the pub trade hope minimum pricing, by raising what supermarkets charge for booze, will help bring people back into pubs. At least the Scottish experiment will show us whether they’re right.

Wotsisname is new pub champ
Pubs have a new champion in government – Mark Prisk MP! Er… well, whoever he is, as business and enterprise minister he’s promising to “fight the corner” for the pub trade and cut the ‘red tape’ holding back businesses.
According to Wikipedia Prisk was formerly minister for Cornwall, a now defunct role. Unless Wikipedia’s made it up.

Daz dazzles
The BII, the organisation formerly known as the British Institute of Innkeeping, has announced its Licensee of the Year – at 26 years the longest running award in the industry. Congrats go to Darran Lingley of the Five Bells in Colne Engaine, Essex.

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Pubs have come out of the double double bank holiday beaming like a bride who’s pulled a rich prince. Both the four-day Easter weekend and the four-day royal wedding/May Day break were graced with warm sunshine in most parts and the British Beer & Pub Association estimated that an extra 100 million pints of beer were sold over the 12 day period.

I heard that on the second Sunday one London pub, which can’t be named in case it gets robbed, took £80,000. To put that into context, your average local pub would probably be happy with £10,000 – a week!

Decline in beer sales not quite as dreadful as before

In the first three months of 2011 beer sales in pubs continued their long-term decline – but at a slightly slower rate. In fact the 3.8% drop over the 2010 figure was the smallest fall in the first quarter since 2005.

April’s bumper bank holidays should help lift the second quarter’s performance too – though the BBPA warned that the Budget tax hikes will also be taking their toll.

Here’s a tip…

If you’re eating out pubs still offer the best value – even though prices are rising. A three-course meal in a pub now costs an average £15.45, up 4% on a year ago, market analyst Horizons reports.

That compares to £20.92 in an average restaurant and £26.26 in a hotel.

A Real deal – at £3.8m a pub

It looks as though London’s thriving small pub chains are attracting the attentions of larger operators. Following the purchase of Geronimo Inns by Young’s at the end of last year, Suffolk brewer Greene King has gobbled up Realpubs, 14 houses dotted around Zone 2 of the capital’s transport system.

Greene King, which earlier this year also bought the Cloverleaf group of gastropubs, paid a hefty £53.1m and will retain the services of Realpubs founders Nick Pring and Malcolm Heap to ensure the successful formula is continued.

That sucks!

After a gay couple were kicked out of Soho’s John Snow for kissing, provoking protests that have closed the place three times at last count, another London pub is in bother for throwing out a woman while she was breast-feeding.

The licensee of the King William IV in Hampstead claims, however, that the woman was ejected for changing her baby on the floor “while people were eating”.

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You’re probably aware of it, but if you weren’t, a gay couple were kicked out of Soho’s John Snow last week. We have to say our first response was “Excuse me? The pub’s in Soho!”

We were in a pub around the corner the night it happened, but managed to miss all the excitement. We haven’t really had a good experience at this pub for a while, so can’t say we’re terribly surprised.

Hundreds of people flocked to a London pub last Friday night, only to find themsleves locked out. The John Snow, in Soho, closed its doors after it was targeted for a mass same-sex snogathon.

The kissing went ahead anyway, outside. But the pub lost its Friday night trade, which it would have expected to be quite substantial. And it has only itself to blame.

The kiss-in was in protest at the ejection of a gay couple for snogging. And very effective it was, too, in demonstrating that pubs just can’t get away with this sort of thing these days.

Go to Phil’s website for the full story…

Thanks to Phil Mellows for this story. We’ve heard rumours another kiss-in is planned for Friday the 22nd, but haven’t found any new posts about it.

London pubs are enjoying a bubble of prosperity, according to the Coffer Peach Business Tracker, which follows the fortunes of 19 major managed pub and restaurant chains.

As like-for-like sales jumped by 0.9% in March compared to last year, Coffer Corporate Leisure’s Mark Sheehan declared that “London is almost operating its own economy”.

That was reflected in performance at Capital Pub Company which has seen revenue increase 24% in the past year, the figure including new openings.

Confidence trick

The general picture is gloomier, though. A survey by business rescue specialist Begbies Traynor reckons the number of bars and restaurants facing cash problems has soared by 68% as consumer confidence and spending has fallen.

As it prepares to sell more pubs Punch Taverns reported profits down 12% in its managed division, although average net income per leased pub was up 0.3%, the first growth for three years.

Ripon yarn

J D Wetherspoon is opening its 800th pub this week. The company has spent a hefty £2.1m on the Unicorn Hotel in Ripon, North Yorkshire. Chairman Tim Martin is aiming to double the size of the estate over the coming years.

Snog in the snug

A gay couple were thrown out of Soho pub the John Snow for kissing – prompting hundreds more to protest with a mass snogathon.

The pub should consider itself lucky that none of them are likely to get hold of the latest shock product from controversialist Scottish brewer Brewdog. Brewed for the big wedding, Royal Virility is a 7.5% abv beer laced with viagra, horny goatweed and chocolate.

Only 40 bottles have been produced. For our dear Queen’s sake, let’s hope the Duke doesn’t get his mitts on one.

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London brewer Fuller’s scored a double at this year’s Publican Awards, picking up the titles of Regional Brewer of the Year and Managed Pub Company of the Year. Marston’s was Tenanted and Leased Pub Company of the Year.

Publican of the Year was named as Michael Ibbotson of the Durham Ox, a community pub and destination food in North Yorkshire.

In the same week, the trade title that gives the awards their name merged with rival pub weekly the Morning Advertiser to form The Publican’s Morning Advertiser, the original name of the MA when it was first launched 200-odd years ago.

Switched-on pubs

Publicans have been taking to the TV screens with Marilyn Coleman-Mellins, who runs Punch pub the Blue Pigeons at Worth, Kent, winning the first episode of Channel 4’s Three in a Bed. Three pub chefs are also set to appear in the new series of the BBC’s Great British Menu.

Admiral trims sails

Admiral Taverns, one of the country’s biggest pub owners, has sliced £47 million off its debts after reducing the size of its estate by 11%. Admiral now has 1,768 pubs – and still owes nearly £300 million.

Thorley needed profits

Kent pubco Thorley Taverns has turned round a loss of nearly £300,000 in 2009 to record profits of more than £600,000 in the year to June 2010. The family firm runs 25 pubs in seaside towns and has recently invested £500,000 in a new pub opposite the Turner Gallery in Margate.

Widdecombe steps in

Dance floor-polishing MP Ann Widdecombe has partnered the Archbishop of Westminster to oppose the name-change of a pub. The Cardinal near Westminster Cathedral is to revert to its orginal name the Windsor Castle but Widdecombe and Vincent Nichols have joined an Independent Catholic News campaign to keep the pub’s reference to former archbishop Cardinal Manning.

A pub or bar a day went bust in 2010, according to accountancy firm Wilkins Kennedy. And, in another piece of research, law publisher Sweet & Maxwell revealed that licence surrenders have doubled over three years, from 2,830 in 2007 to 5,742 in 2010.

“These numbers show the extent to which the industry is struggling,” said Anthony Cork at Wilkins Kennedy. “Bars and restaurants are being squeezed from several directions and a growing number are being forced to close.”

Business building

In spite of the overall decline in pub numbers, some companies are continuing to build new ones. Greene King is the latest to join the trend. It plans to add at least 70 more to its 150-strong Hungry Horse brand over the next year, focusing on new-builds and greenfield sites.

Arch rival Marstons has led the way in this, building 20 new pubs this financial year and increasing that to 25 next year after discovering that new-builds take an average £25,000 a week compared to £15,000 for the rest of its managed estate, driving an overall sales growth of 2.4%.

Young and slimmer

London-based pub company Young’s has put 30 of its 99 tenancies up for sale. The move follows its acquisition of the Geronimo Inns chain earlier this year which added 26 large food-led managed pubs.

Young’s joins Punch Taverns and Greene King in aspiring to a slimmer, fitter tenanted estate.

Osborne, you’re barred!

Publican William Lea, who runs the Trengilly Wartha Inn at Falmouth, Cornwall, has launched a bid to bar George Osborne from every pub in the land following the Chancellor’s scandalous alcohol duty Budget hike.

Even if successful the campaign is unlikely to have much effect, however. Osborne is yet to be seen going anywhere near anything as scruffy as a pub.

If your heart leapt when the Chancellor announced there’d be ‘no change’ in alcohol taxation during his Budget speech you’ll now be crying into your beer in the hope getting it down below 2.8% abv for the lower duty rate.

For what he really mean was that the duty escalator, which annually increases drink tax by 2% above the rate of inflation, stays in place.

It means duty is up another 7.2%, putting around 10p on the price of a pint. How much more of this can pub-goers take?

Split decision

Punch Taverns is to separate its tenanted and managed divisions and sell off thousands more pubs to bring its leased estate down to around 3,000 high-performing houses.

The news came in a long-awaited strategic review that aims to put the group in sound commercial shape in the face of massive debts.

It’s the end of an era, and could have major repercussions for the industry.

Wor-th-waiting for

Blackburn-based brewer Thwaites is doubling the investment in its 355-strong pub estate over the coming year, refurbishing between 50 and 60 of its houses.

“We want to lift the overall quality of our estate and provide a more comfortable environment for our customers,” said new chief exec Richard Bailey, the third boss the family brewer has had in four years.

Juice runs out of juice

Despite the increasingly wide variety of soft drinks that are available these days, pub-goers continue to stick by good old cola. Britvic’s annual Soft Drinks Report showed cola volumes in the on-trade 3% up, driven by the draught variety and people seeking better value, while the company’s own juice-based drink J2O fell 13%.

Wine whine

The days of Hirondelle may be long gone, but wine drinkers are still disappointed by what’s on offer in pubs, according to research by Wine Intelligence.

Yet the chances that a wine lover will be standing next to you at the bar are higher than ever, with a 69% penetration (whatever that means).

Spooning it on

Pub pies can contain more salt than 15 bags of crisps, health researchers have discovered. J D Wetherspoon was named as the biggest culprit, serving the saltiest pie and mash in the land, according to a group called Consensus Action on Salt and Health.

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