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My Shout

The My Shout column gives the senior figures in the trade a chance to voice their learned opinions on the pub trade.

Binge Britain – Cameron sends in the tanks

21-Feb-2012 - The words ‘drunk tank’ conjure up conflicting emotions for me. I think of Fairytale of New York and get all warm Christmassy feelings. Then I think of poor Kirsty MacColl, oh why did she have to die?

Blind tasting opened our eyes to future of cask

14-Feb-2012 - In December we decided to join the brewers’ ranks with a 2.8% ABV cask to utilise the Government’s gift of 50% duty relief for non-PBD (progressive beer duty) brewers brewing 2.8% or below.

Political intervention brings little support

07-Feb-2012 - Enjoying a pint with some mates in my local last week, we reflected on the staple diet of bar chat: sex, religion and politics. Leaving the first two aside, I considered the political intervention/ interference the pub industry has endured over the past 20-30 years.

All change for the mismeasure of drink?

03-Feb-2012 - As the government prepares to make a major statement on alcohol policy, probably some time in February, there have been some interesting manouvrings going on.

The truth about alcohol-related hospital admissions

02-Feb-2012 - For too long the licensed retail sector has been on the defensive, engaged in anxious hand-wringing when confronted by the remorselessly grim alcohol-harm numbers generated by the health lobby.

My lesson for the new year: it’s good to talk

01-Feb-2012 - So we welcome in the new year — the Olympic year — with great promise; a year that was always going to be recognised as exceptional (we will ignore the Mayan prophecies).

Brilliant book shows we must toast pubs’ history

24-Jan-2012 - I come from an old-fashioned family where we still exchange stocking-filler type presents at Christmas. This year I received a book called The Great Leeds Pub Crawl.

Pricing us out of an alcohol problem?

21-Dec-2011 - It must be that time of year. We’re getting deluged with alcohol-related stories and studies. There really ought to be a recommended limit for consuming this kind of stuff.

Pubco-tenant debate will never go away

09-Dec-2011 - And so it goes on. The Government, at last, published its response to the Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee’s (BISC’s) report and its long-awaited plan of action to rebalance the pub industry.

'Pantogate' saga masks BISC inquiry issues

24-Nov-2011 - Interesting comments last week from Ted Tuppen regarding the Business, Innovation & Skills Committee inquiry (BISC). While calling the process a ‘political pantomime’ was probably going too far, this one-liner has led to a lot of unnecessary objections and press coverage and deflected away from a number of key points he was trying to make.

Helping you meet the needs of customers

24-Nov-2011 - Having recently returned to the UK from my role as Commercial Director for Diageo in Ireland, my first impression of pubs over here at the moment is of a sector that is vibrant and responsive to meeting the needs of today’s pub visitor.

Back our pubs and reap the rewards

17-Nov-2011 - Against a background where the vast majority of pubs are seen as responsibly right, why have successive governments discriminated against them instead of supporting them?

Old-school landlords are our unsung heroes

16-Nov-2011 - Whenever I chat to Chas, the landlord of my local, I am impressed not only by the depth of his pub-trade knowledge but its streetwise nature.

BDMs: leadership is the key criterion

10-Nov-2011 - The business development manager (BDM) is the linchpin role for the tenanted and leased-pub business. So it is puzzling that as an industry we don’t spend more time focusing on it — and talking about it — given the extent of its impact on the businesses of both licensees and pubcos.

Pub sector deserves genuine leadership

07-Nov-2011 - There are not many things that we all agree on in the pub sector, but I think that most people would accept that times are a-changing.

Chickens are roosting for Alcohol Concern

03-Nov-2011 - I had a distinct sense of chickens coming home to roost when I heard that Alcohol Concern had lost its annual funding from the Department of Health.

The inspiration that will drive quality in 2012

25-Oct-2011 - I attended two significant but quite different beer events in recent weeks — the launch of the fifth UK Cask Report and my first ever visit to the Great American Beer Festival in Denver, Colorado.

Back trade and we’ll all thrive

20-Oct-2011 - This is a critical time for our industry and the country’s economy. No less a person than the Governor of the Bank of England fears that the financial crisis is the worst the country has ever seen. Living standards are being squeezed to an extent not witnessed since the 1920s.

We need a Fresher look at student drinking

17-Oct-2011 - The students are back. There’s a definite shift in mood and in tempo here in Brighton as some 30,000 young people arrive at the city’s two univerisities to study – and to drink.

Take time to think about your business

07-Oct-2011 - Just now and then, work on the pub, not in it. These are challenging times for anyone in business and not least for the pub trade.

Who does Brigid Simmonds remind you of?

07-Oct-2011 - Like many of you I listened to Peter White’s interview with British Beer and Pub Association chief executive Brigid Simmonds on the Radio 4 programme You and Yours.

Be vigilant: the lone moaners are out there

30-Sep-2011 - A month ago the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) had a pop at Heineken over its advert for Kronenbourg 1664, which it judged implied that the beer was brewed in France, which it isn’t. The ruling generated national media interest, including the BBC’s Watchdog.

Only the law can help pub trade change its ways

29-Sep-2011 - Finally, after four enquiries into pubcos in eight years and four reports with consistent recommendations to the industry on how to sort itself out, the Business, Innovation & Skills Select Committee has told the Government it is time to act.

Boris and the sobriety test

27-Sep-2011 - Writing in the Daily Telegraph on the 19th September, London Mayor Boris Johnson laments the number of violent offenders who don’t get sent to prison, and calls for the introduction of a “sobriety test” for all persons convicted of drink-related violent offences.

Good news for beer, but what about the pub?

26-Sep-2011 - When it comes to British beer, to quote Harold Macmillan, we have never had it so good. Nationally, we now have 840 breweries, with almost 100 new ones opening across the UK in the past year, with a remarkable 5,500 beers now in regular production, a new report shows. As Roger Protz pointed out, to sample those would take something like 25 years. Now that’s a challenge.