News

Business Support

Tips, opinion and ideas on how to boost your pub's business

Six steps to becoming a multiple pub operator

15-Mar-2012 - So you think you’ll make a good multiple operator? As Scottish & Newcastle Pub Company narrows down the common factors behind what works in its estate, Phil Mellows asks questions about acquiring that difficult second pub

Minor miracles

15-Mar-2012 - Children are given special attention at the Bolingbroke in south-west London. Mark Reynolds, who co-owns Renaissance Pubs with his friends Tom Peake and Nick Fox, tells Jessica Harvey about how to get families through the door.

Six clichés of uncertainty

15-Mar-2012 - When several national newspapers simultaneously run a story saying the prime minister is committed to minimum pricing for alcohol, you can be pretty sure the policy is on its way in one form or another.

PPL chief defends plans to raise fees

12-Mar-2012 - Anyone who demands money from you is never going to be popular. In a struggling economy it’s even worse — utility cost increases are never ending, rents are harder to negotiate and business rates have a habit of rising just when you think you are up to date with your finances.

The Big Interview: Mike Tye

12-Mar-2012 - If you had to choose someone to venture into the jungle with, although hopefully it won’t come to that, your first choice would obviously be Ray Mears, Bear Grylls being a bit of a chancer. But if reliable Ray’s not available, how about Mike Tye?

Cracking opportunities: Making the most of Easter

12-Mar-2012 - Pubs can go hell for leather to increase takings over the forthcoming Easter weekend by staging themed activities and ensuring their food and drink offer ticks the right box. Sheila McWattie report.

Consequences of the Murphy case

12-Mar-2012 - As I commented last week, the decision in the Karen Murphy TV football case was inevitable, given the rulings handed down by the European Court.

Beer and food matching: Top Tips

08-Mar-2012 - Not enough money in the till — check. A small kitchen — check. No time — check. Little subject knowledge — check. If you were to make a checklist of reasons why you’re not matching beers with food, you’d probably come up with these.

Measure, benchmark, act

08-Mar-2012 - Spend a week on the newsdesk of the Publican’s Morning Advertiser (it’s an open invitation!) and you’d be forgiven for thinking that all tenants hate their pub companies. It’s true to say that most of those that contact our journalists have an axe to grind.

Ambition in difficult times

07-Mar-2012 - Maxxium’s ready-to-drink launch and Cobra’s £4m campaign (see right) are both highly ambitious. Sourz Fusionz enters an RTD sector that has been in steady decline in the last few years, squeezed by the growth of flavoured ciders and marginalised by a shrinking late-night bar and club economy.

The Big Interview: Simon Townsend

06-Mar-2012 - Simon Townsend is in a good mood. We’re in the Ebury in Pimlico, one of the gems in the Enterprise Inns estate, now back in the hands of gastropub entrepreneur Tom Etridge — and it’s a glittering example of just what pubs can be.

Night-time legacy

05-Mar-2012 - Increasingly I get the feeling that the late-night levy, like alcohol disorder zones, is a non-starter. Not because the trade does not like it (why should they?) but because it does not benefit anyone involved in its collection or administration.

Precision marketing

05-Mar-2012 - To avoid wasting time and money, and upsetting customers, your promotions need thorough planning, says Alastair Scott.

Seas the day: Upselling fish & chips

02-Mar-2012 - Fish & chips is the most British of dishes. Sheila McWattie looks at 10 ways to get it on your menu.

Keep your eye on the ball

29-Feb-2012 - They think it’s all over... it is now for Karen Murphy. The final whistle has blown on her six-year legal battle against her conviction for using foreign satellite services to show live Premier League football in her Portsmouth pub, the Red, White & Blue.

Making the most of St Patrick's Day

29-Feb-2012 - For those willing to put in the hard yards and prepare for it, St Patrick’s Day can provide licensees with one of the busiest days of their year. Sheila McWattie reports.

The Big Interview: Jacques Borel

28-Feb-2012 - Jacques Borel has plans to create 140,000 new UK jobs by slashing VAT on food and drink to 5%. Roger Protz meets the intrepid Frenchman with a spectacular international track record Jacques Borel has a mission in life — to breathe life back into pubs and restaurants by slashing the rate of VAT levied on food and drink.

Time to curb pre-loading

27-Feb-2012 - It is not surprising that National Pubwatch has picked up on minimum-pricing schemes in various parts of the country. I have been contacted by a number of readers questioning the manner in which they have been approached to keep prices to a certain level.

Dare to make a difference

27-Feb-2012 - The Mojito, a traditional Cuban highball, is the UK’s favourite cocktail. It reminds me of the time when chicken tikka masala was declared the UK’s national dish.

Clear cut advantage

24-Feb-2012 - Unless you are a student and beans-on-toast represents the sum total of your culinary abilities, nobody would choose to have the same meal every night. But that does not stop pub chefs putting the same dishes on their menus up and down the country

Pub Mentors: Softs put fizz into business

22-Feb-2012 - Executing ‘brilliant basics’ on soft drinks and using targeted promotional activity to drive new footfall were the two key areas that lessees Duncan and Natalie Entwistle and I talked about on my first visit to their pub, the Greets Inn in Warnham, West Sussex.

The Big Interview: David Wilson

21-Feb-2012 - Nearly a year into his post, David Wilson, the British Beer and Pub Association’s (BBPA’s) public affairs director, tells Gurjit Degun about his love of a good campaign and how the industry needs to work together to tackle the elephant in the room — the beer-duty escalator.

Pub Mentors: Making Greet strides

21-Feb-2012 - As my three-month mentoring programme with the Greets Inn comes to an end, it is wonderful to reflect on how far Duncan and Natalie have come in such a short space of time. I believe we have achieved all we set out in our action plan — and more.

Pub footy: Kitchin-sink drama goes on

20-Feb-2012 - It is not surprising that initial reactions in the trade to the latest round of the satellite TV football arguments appear rather confused (the PMA’s front page last week)