Better beer

Improving beer quality will increase profitability. And if you don't know how, it's time to organise some training. Adam Withrington explains.

The British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA)'s Image of Beer campaign has now been running for 18 months. Brewers, retailers and trade associations have sat down together to talk about how to unite the industry behind beer - "to transform it into a respected and nurtured product in the UK", says BBPA communications director Mark Hastings.

The BBPA has earmarked four target areas, which it hopes will turn its vision into a reality. They are:

• Quality and standards
• PR and communications (a new BBPA PR manager devoted exclusively to Beer Image will be appointed in September)
• Education (through the Beer Academy)
• Measurement and evaluation.

The pilot scheme​

The first target area, quality and standards, is being tackled in a pilot scheme which the BBPA hopes will be recognised as the industry gold standard evaluation for beer quality.

The BBPA has got four of its members to nominate 400 of their pubs to be used in the exercise. These cover the spectrum of the trade - the tenanted pub company Enterprise Inns, the managed pub company Mitchells & Butlers, plus regional brewers Robinson's and Thwaites. They will all be evaluated by beer quality assessors Cask Marque.

Half the pubs are being used as "test" sites where a Cask Marque inspector will evaluate the cellar, quality of beer, and general presentation. Once marked the licensee and/or their staff will be invited to go on Beer Academy or British Institute of Innkeeping training courses. Cask Marque will return at a later date to check the difference the training has made.

There are also 200 "control" pubs, which are simply assessed by Cask Marque without any training being offered. At the end the different parties will be able to measure the difference in standards between the "test" and "control" pubs.

Paul Nunny, director of Cask Marque, (pictured)​ says: "We hope the results will show that best practice works. Hopefully we can show the results to the pub groups and say 'what are you going to do?' and 'is your house in order?' The industry is driven by profit so we need to prove that improving practice will increase profitability.

"The two main questions from this research will be: what will the impact be and what effect will it have on profitability?

"The momentum is already there so we shouldn't have a problem. It's really a no-brainer if you think about it."

'Improving beer quality is fundamental'​

Simon Townsend, customer services director, Enterprise Inns, says:

"There was a real danger that the trade would end up talking about improving the image of beer and not actually implementing anything. Improving beer quality is a fundamental part of our business.

"We were invited to take part in this trial and we were delighted to accept.

"While we believe the image of beer lies in the hands of brand owners, we feel we have a big part to play.

"The initiative has brought together all the different parts of the industry: the brands, the retailers and the other groups like the BBPA, the Beer Academy and Cask Marque."

The Cask Marque assessment​

"I've been in the trade for over 30 years and I find these training exercises a bit of a waste of time. I'm a dinosaur - you can't change me."

When a licensee tells you this in his cellar within earshot of a Cask Marque inspector you start to worry for his future business.

This was the first of two quality visits the Cask Marque inspector brought me along to observe. And it was not going well.

The licensee's unwillingness to take the advice of the assessor wouldn't have been a problem if his cellar was in top order, but all was not well "down under". The connections between beer lines and the taps on the wall were dirty and cobwebbed, the CO2 canisters weren't being stored correctly, the licensee had no safety clothing and one cask even had a filter on it allowing the licensee to top up the cask with waste beer. "That buggers up quality more than anything else," said the assessor. The licensee replied he would lose £100 a week in sales if he didn't do it.

The second pub we visited looked immaculate to me - clean and well-ordered. It surely ticked every box. But, good as it was, even this cellar was not perfect - the temperature was too low to keep cask ale in its best condition, the assessor found.

This showed that even in the best-kept cellars there is room for improvement and that there is huge amount of support out there now for licensees. There are things everyone can learn.

My conclusion from the two visits was that people like the first licensee need to be persuaded that training really is worth it, that improving quality will lead to rising sales.

It will allow him to push his prices up, meaning customers pay the premium price they should for a product as good as cask ale. In the end it is win-win, for licensee and consumer. Hopefully the results from the pilot scheme will come up with some definitive proof and convince the more reluctant in the trade that improving quality is in everyone's interests.