Grass isn't always greener

The PMA Team, Deputy Editor

Who could be blamed for casting an envious eye at the guy running the managed pub down the road? The grass can often seem greener. His pub is probably bigger than yours. It might have seen a large capital investment in recent years. Your regulars tell you how much cheaper the beer is and how much busier the managed pub was on Friday night.

It is worth, though, recalling the parable of the tortoise and the hare. In many ways it's been the story of the pub trade in the past 10 years. Pubs are about personality. The managed pub chains in any given town operate at one huge disadvantage compared to the tenanted and leased operator. It's an issue that Peter Linacre, who runs the managed operator Massive, talks about at some length in our City profile this week.

'We believe, he says, 'that the best pubs are those where the owner or operator looks the customer in the face. Linacre is talking about the value of landlording, the unique appetite for looking after customers that comes when it's your money at stake. He talks about the inevitable 'diseconomy of scale that comes for the managed operator when one of its licensees become disaffected. No-one would doubt, of course, that there are thousands of motivated managed-operator licensees out there. But it is also true that no managed operator can rely solely on a smart and well-invested pub to out-perform. It has to try to encourage its licensees to care in a way that is expected of few other salaried staff in the world of work. It's only the inexorable working of the laws of human nature when these licensees become brassed off: perhaps by dint of an unresponsive area manager who will not back good trading ideas; or an unrealistic approach to the hours rota that forces a licensee to work a 70-hour week to meet the centrally-imposed target.

Linacre's answer is to maintain a tight geographic focus to ensure that he keeps close to all the operational issues. It's no different to the circus plate-spinner who, naturally enough, has to keep close to his plates. Sometimes it's worth counting your blessings. If you are a tenanted or leased operator, the big managed pub will not be able to match your speed of thought and action and, in all likelihood, your commitment.