Tenants and lessees of regional brewers across the country w
However, cheering's one thing; banking on the 90-odd Greene King licensees having any luck with their legal challenge on this pricing disparity is quite another. No-one should be under the illusion that this is anything other than a highly-speculative fishing expedition, which may never strike out for sea, let alone land any catches.
The chances of Maitland Walker being able to mount a proper legal challenge are slim, say many legal experts. And although the solicitor has defied its critics in getting as far as it has with the Crehan case, 10-years'-plus of struggle and years of appeals still yawning ahead are not sufficient grounds for inspiring confidence that this latest bid by David to fell Goliath will go anywhere.
But that's not to say that regional brewers can ignore the issues raised by the case. For so many tenants to commit to funding Maitland Walker's fees, indicates how angry they have become. And their focus of complaint is a regional pub company that has proved far and away the most popular in the Morning Advertiser tenancy survey over the past three years. No doubt other pub companies are also aware that tenants complain bitterly about the pricing of their landlord's managed pubs, too.
One of the strange things about the case apart from the fact that it has never happened before is that regionals make much play these days of how the brewing side of the company operates tough, non sweetheart deals with its managed division. If that was so, undercutting by the managed chain would hurt its GP yet we know, on average, they achieve 72% GPs a figure tenants can only dream about.
The question to be answered, therefore, is why Greene King and other managed pub groups are competing so hard on price? Surely their superior retailing skills in their heavily-invested estates should provide their competitive edge? Or is everything about price these days?
