HOPES OF CHEAPER BEER IN PUB REVOLT

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Britain?s pub landlords are to vote on industrial action over deals with national pub companies


THOUSANDS of Britain?s pub landlords are to vote on industrial action over ?unfair? deals with national pub companies ? and it could mean cheaper beer.

If the action goes ahead tenants in pubs across the UK will refuse to buy beer from pub-owning chains and will sell it on the cheap, cutting profits for the owners, in a bid to win a reduction in the amount of money they pay for supplies.

Most pubs in Britain are owned by large companies, referred to in the trade as ?pubcos?, which lease out premises to individual licensees under strict tie-ins with the major breweries.

These pubcos buy beer at massive discounts from their tied breweries but sell it on at close to full price to the tenant landlords who have to buy from them. The GMB union said it was now campaigning to secure cuts in payments of ?12,000 per landlord.

There are an estimated 25,000 tied tenants of seven large pubcos and the union claims they are being charged up to double the true wholesale price of beer. GMB national officer Paul Maloney said that if industrial action goes ahead pubs will stop buying beer from the pubcos and instead buy cheaper beer on the open market.

He said the savings would then be passed on to customers during the dispute which could mean prices fall by 25p or even 30p a pint. Mr Maloney said: ?The aim of the action by the tied tenants is to secure negotiation with pubcos to achieve very substantial cuts in wholesale prices.?

Stephen Alambritis, of the Federation of Small Businesses backed the move and accused pubcos of being ?unreasonable? and ?harassing? pub tenants.

[ruudvandan]

The pubcos are the biggest problem behind the closure of pubs across the country. They exist purely to screw as much money as possible out of the landlords. The problem is they bought too many pubs at unrealistically high prices so they have to recoup their money. They do this by tying tenants into contracts based on a turnover of up to double what the pub is realistially likely to achieve and base the prices of the lease accordingly. The people who then run the pub are forced to work every hour God sends employing minimal staff because they struggle to meet the rent payments. Tey work till they go bust and are forced to terminate the lease early, which also incurrs massive penalties. The pubcos literally take everything they have and still demand more.

Many of the people who take over these pubs are inexperienced business people, who do not realise the business aspect to running a pub, they are generally just a couple who fancy having their own pub. They are being exploited, but still they must take some blame for not looking into things properly.

The ones who I really feel sorry for are those who took out a sensible lease, only to have the freehold sold on to a pubco and have such a ridiculous lease imposed upon them.

The best thing that could happen is all the leaseholders go bust so the pubcos are forced to sell the freeholds at a reasonable price. Of course the leaseholders won't stand for this cos they dont wanna go bust, so they do this instead, which is a step in the right direction.