Publicans sign up to net gains

Related tags Business development Renting Landlord

Effective communication between landlords and tenants is at the heart of a successful pub industry. Behind that lies the relationship between the...

Effective communication between landlords and tenants is at the heart of a successful pub industry. Behind that lies the relationship between the licensee and their area manager or business development manager (BDM). On the face of it, this relies on a purely human interaction. But technology, and especially the internet, is increasingly playing its part. For a few years now, tenants and lessees with some companies have had access to an intranet - an internal company website - which can help them with information and resources.

The latest is uniON, for the 1,900 licensees with The Union Pub Company (UPC), Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries' tenanted estate. The uniON website pulls together a range of existing and new services into what the company describes as an "online toolbox".

The site is personalised for each user and includes details of their tenancy agreement, price lists and real-time trading information culled from the Brulines dispense monitoring system. It also offers special offers and promotions, business planning tools and the information publicans need to run a profitable business.

The real trick, however, is to get publicans to make use of it. The traditional pub tenant has not, in the past, been the most embracing of new technologies, preferring the face-to-face approach. But the first few months of uniON have produced some encouraging figures.

UPC believes that about 895 of the 1,000 licensees with a computer have registered on the site. More than 10,000 visits have been made to it and nearly 1,500 documents have been downloaded, including legal forms and training materials.

UPC commercial director Andrew Cooney is well aware of the uneven development that characterises large, tenanted estates, however. "At the top end, we have perhaps 200 licensees who are already doing things and have different skills to the tradition publican," he says. "They only need a little incentive to use the site.

"The next tier has needed more encouragement and we have set up drop-in style surgeries to help them make the most of the service. If they see a use for it, they will use it. That's the acid test. We will be adding new things to the site every month."

For the internet-resistant and those who haven't even got a computer, the substance of uniON is available in paper form. Perhaps more importantly for the future, UPC's BDMs are able to introduce them to the site on their own laptops using G3 technology - a kind of mobile phone that plugs into the computer - to give them internet access across 90 per cent of the country.

Andrew believes that the website can take the company's relationships with its tenants to "a new level". He adds: "UniON has a grown-up approach to support as it gives them the tools, flexibility and freedom to run their own businesses. We are famous for being close to our customers and we don't want to lose that. We will keep the BDM service, but also be able to give our licensees equal access to the information they need.

"They can go onto the site and find their own contracts, their own sales, discounts and price lists. Speed of information is everything these days and that is what we can give them. If uniON can make us easier to deal with and improve the job for our BDMs, that has to be a win-win."

Richard Hobson, UPC's BDM for Derbyshire, is already seeing the benefits. "More of my tenants had a computer than I thought," he says. "I have talked to others and they say they will get one. Some may never, but it has gone down well with the majority.

"I like to do work with them on it at first so that they understand what they can do. They need time to play on it before trusting it.

"It has been good for me because G3 enables me to access information on the spot and answer questions on discounts, for instance. I can sit down and share information with them, which I feel it makes me more credible."

David Young of the Tiger in Long Eaton, Nottinghamshire, one of the licensees who trialled uniON, is another supporter. "The portal certainly exceeded my expectations," he says. "It features lots of useful tools that will make my life a lot easier and there is no doubt it will help my business. And you don't have to be computer literate.

"The professional posters and point-of-sale designing service is particularly useful, as getting the right message out to customers is always a challenge for pubs."

Inside union