VAT lessons from the French master
I spent a couple of hours with the stalwart French VAT campaigner and serial hospitality entrepreneur Jacques Borel last week.
He's an extraordinary figure — the founder of the Sofitel hotel chain, the man who introduced the first hamburger chain to France, the brains behind the introduction of the luncheon voucher, and the guy that opened the first motorway service station in France. His energy is remarkable and belies the fact that he is in his mid-80s.
The campaigning he's done across Europe on VAT has brought concession after concession for the hospitality industry. And who doesn't love a war story? He studied the German armaments build-up as a 12-year-old in the pre-war period — and forecast that the German Army would get to Paris in 60 days. For once he was wrong, it took them just 34 days.
Nevertheless, he began to study German.
It came in handy during his teenage years in the French resistance when he smuggled communications between Paris and Lyons.
He was eventually arrested by the Gestapo and his knowledge of German saved his life — he understood what his interrogators were saying to each other as they questioned him, and was released within a day.
This level of personal application has served him — and the wider leisure industry — well during his long and distinguished career. He has spent as many hours lobbying governments as he has running businesses over the past four decades.
For the past two years he has been working hard in the UK to promote the lower VAT agenda with its attendant benefits of increased employment (leading to increased tax take for the Government), greater competitiveness for leisure businesses, and a reduced labour black market.
Particularly interesting is his take on how successful lobbying is achieved given our sector's singular lack of success in persuading Government that taxing the heck out of beer is counter-productive and amounts to a punishment for a substantial UK-based manufacturing stronghold. He believes in the importance of making a case over and over again. "All life is about selling," he says.
Having met him, I believe his success around Europe is also linked to the power that comes from an entrepreneur, a job-creating businessman making a strong case for change with power and passion.
It's why the letter that was sent to Government this week by leading brewers and pub operators bemoaning the beer-duty escalator has more chance of being listened to than any number of worthy representations by trade associations.
The case for lower VAT in on-premises is a powerful one, backed by a successful live experiment in France.
Borel will be making an appearance at the Publican's Morning Advertiser business conference for multi-site operators on Wednesday 11 May — he'll be explaining the best way for the leisure sector in the UK to win a 5% VAT rate. It's time for many voices to make a powerful and simultaneous case.
