When tied to selling certain products, your pubco should at least be able to supply them says Roger Jackson of the Anglesey Arms, Halnaker, West Sussex.
As the Trade and Industry Select Committee's inquiry into pub companies' relationships with their tenants and the beer tie hots up, and as publicans wait with bated breath for the outcome, perhaps it is worth considering the state of the tie as it exists and may remain.
I am one of many licensees floundering in Pubmaster Punch no-man's-land. My sole personal correspondence with Punch since the takeover involved the installation of Brulines, but I have yet to receive a product list of the beers that this might monitor.
The Pubmaster contract ties me for beer, cider and alcopops, but we buck the trend and it is ales which are our strength.
The schedule of tied beers reads, encouragingly, like the index to a World Beer Encyclopedia by Roger Protz or Michael Jackson, defensively tying me to 30 international types, including such delicacies as smoked, white, fruit and Trappist beers. But can I buy them from my pubco?
The quest for an interesting real ale selection has proved difficult. Local beers are an impossibility and non-national, regional ones that are listed are inevitably not stocked at your depot.
As business people, publicans need to be able to formulate individual business plans, so as not to succumb to the national depersonalisation of pubs.
It is its potential individuality that gives the non-managed pub the edge, yet the supply-and-discount system encourages the facelessness of national brands, particularly lagers.
My tied schedule suggests that I could open a Belgian beer bar or a bierkeller, but in reality I cannot source an individual real ale, a genuinely crafted draught pilsner or the much-publicised Leffe Blonde from my pubco, although they suit my business plan and I am tied for them.
A tie for beers? Maybe, but pubcos, if you are going to tie, be prepared to supply.