Help vital for newcomers

The more support pubcos offer, the more chance of avoiding the disasters that tarnish our image

Andrew Pring, Editor

Of all the problems facing the pub trade today, the largest is surely recruitment. Talk to any pubco or family brewer and they'll lament they have many people wanting one of their pubs, but very few who they're confident will make a real go of it. Yet because rent-roll is king, a second-best appointment is too often made and almost from day one the troubles begin that will lead to one more pub failure.

So the vicious circle of wrong-headed recruitment rolls on, further worsening the industry's image in a way that scares off exactly the more experienced business types that are so desperately needed to run our pubs.

Of course, there are pub virgins who succeed brilliantly, and some who rub along happily enough but they're the minority. For the most part, people with little relevant experience but in search of a happier lifestyle are being drafted in with scales covering their eyes and the harsh commercial realities of pub life hit them hard, frequently fatally hard.

So how do we get round the problem? Some pubcos talk of raising the bar to entry. They say it's too easy to become a licensee. They'd like to offer their pubs only to people who've passed BII exams, and maybe even introduce 'provisional licences so that aspiring entrants must understudy experienced licensees before being granted a full licence and a pub.

That's an idea worth working towards. Hospitality is a profession, and should be studied accordingly, and it would undoubtedly raise the quality of licensee entry to the trade. However, empty pubs need to be let now, and there are just not enough hard-headed businessmen to fill them so pubcos must try something else if the vicious circle is to be broken. One suggestion is to insist incoming licensees go on a 10-day training course before they take over the pub: insisting they do once they're in is too late. Also, the ideas practised at Charles Wells and Greene King of 'open book-keeping and 'mentoring really can help first-timers.

The onus on improving things truly lies with pubcos: they know the score, whereas pub newcomers don't. The more support they offer in the first year, the more chance of avoiding the disasters that keep tarnishing our image.