News Article Comments : A modest proposal for helping pubs

Last man standing is the phrase on the lips of many pub bosses these days. They mean that if you can just hang on in there, chances are your rival pubs will be closing and you’ll clean up with all the local trade.

Seeing who can hold their breath underwater for the longest is a similar phrase doing the rounds.

To make sure their pub is the last man standing, or has the strongest lungs, some companies are stepping up the help they offer their licensees.

Shepherd Neame, for example, has spotted the massive potential in coffee and is hiring top-of-the-range machines to licensees at cheap rates. And offering to pay half the sub for Sky is another idea some are considering.

At Admiral, the management is asking its licensees to come up with business-building tips to share across the estate.

And brewers like Carlsberg, Coors, InBev and S&NUK are training their sales force to be able to offer customers advice on how to grow their business.

The message that’s being pushed to licensees