City diary
Dome is sound home for Slug
No one could have known whether the new 02 concert venue on the site of the Millennium Dome would be a good place to site a new bar. Could have been a little goldmine, could have been a hulking great white elephant. Full marks then to Laurel Pub Company for having the courage to open a Slug & Lettuce there. So how's it going? "It's our second busiest Slug & Lettuce - surpassed our wildest dreams," a company source tells me. So busy are the bars and restaurants at the site that Laurel is now lining up a Ha! Ha! opening. And pub-friendly Greenwich Council has even dished out a couple of 24-hour licences. No plans to use them, apparently, but nice to have the flexibility. That's how the 2003 Licensing Act is supposed to work, isn't it?
Stand-up drinkers are a fact of life
Common sense from Edinburgh deputy council leader Steve Cardownie on the plan to ensure 50% of city pubs are occupied by seating. Cllr Cardownie, who used to have a bar in the city, says: "I think it's nonsensical to try to impose some kind of limit on the number of people who can stand up in a pub. How on earth would you enforce that? Some people prefer to stand up in the pub when they go for a drink. It's a fact of life. Are we going to have bean counters going round telling people to sit down?" Stranger things have come to pass, Steve.
Marston's lager balances books
Who'd be a bigboy lager producer? We reported last week that Coors needed to chop out £22m of costs in 2006 to stand still. Now Marston's has put the bite on its lager suppliers in a deal that allows it to serve Carlsberg, Foster's and Carling across the business for the first time. The contract renegotiation provides enough in the way of savings to offset the cost increases feeding in from rising food and barley costs. So what is the cost of the increases? "I'd effectively be giving you the number (for the price reduction in the lager contracts)," chief executive Ralph Findlay told analysts, not unreasonably.
Putting a price on the soggy summer
In the case of one part of the Mitchells & Butler's empire,
it's just about possible to put an exact monetary value on the soggy summer. It caused sales to slow at the 160 or so sites it has so far converted from Whitbread brands to its own brands following their acquisition last summer. Earlier in the year, M&B reported sales were up by 25% after conversion - the figure has now dropped to 20%. The sites were taking an average of £16,000 a week on acquisition, rising to £20,000 when sales were 25% up. So, the summer weather cost around £800 a week in sales per site after the 5% drop - or £128,000 per week across 160 sites. Can someone check my maths?
Governor banks on a liquid market
Satirical website, The Spoof, has its own take on the credit crunch and Bank of England's changes of tack to ease lack of liquidity. In The Spoof's version, the Bank of England was reported as having "pumped £10bn into London pubs to ease fears in the City". The story continued: "The £10bn has been put behind the bars of 1,000 London pubs in an attempt to relieve tensions in the City and increase the banks' likelihood of lending to each other because they are all pissed. This is also
likely to lead to drunken bankers revealing the extent to which they are exposed to the bad debts from the US sub-prime mortgage crisis." The website claimed the bank, in an attempt to calm the storm, also repeatedly referred to this as the 'Pub Prime Solution'. "Breweries all over the south-east are now rushing supplies to the square mile in expectation of a massive rise in consumption," it added. I've heard worse ideas.
Boston beer party
Lincolnshire-based Batemans is having its brews stocked in 30 local Tesco stores as part of an initiative by the supermarket giant to source local products. It helps that Tesco senior buying manager Sam Nundy hails from Boston, the nearest sizeable town to the brewery. "I am born and bred in Boston, Lincolnshire, and am delighted to be able to support my 'home-town' brewery," he says. Interesting little trend - positive discrimination based on localism, a kind of scaled-down, regionalised Buy British. Have I mentioned I hail from Boston?
Small wet-led boozers see growth
Encouraging words for the small-square-footage wet-led pub from Shepherd Neame chief executive Jonathan Neame, the type of boozer most at risk, according to some, in the wake of the smoke ban. "I still see a lot of opportunity for wet-led pubs," he says. "Our smaller wet-led pubs are seeing more growth - or at least holding sales - than larger ones where the atmosphere is changed (after the ban)."
Shaken not shtirred?
I'm grateful to my colleagues on Off Licence News for
pointing me towards the first words of Glasgow Licensing Board's draft policy document. "Glasgow is a cocktail," the document begins. Is this helping anyone?
Bidding on Barracuda
There's been a fairly brisk trade in Barracuda-tenanted pubs at the auction rooms this year. The Case in Horse Fair, Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, is up at an Allsop Commercial auction today (11 October) with an asking price of £875,000 to £900,000 thanks to a per annum rent of £60,000 paid by Barracuda. By my reckoning it's the third Barracuda-tenanted site up for auction in four months. In this case, the pub only opened at the start of last month after Barracuda signed a 25-year lease in March. If the pub fetches £900,000, it means the buyer gets a 6.6% return on his money. Interestingly, the last two pubs, both in Wales, sold for an undisclosed amount post-auction.
Broad Street bars to let
CGA Strategy reports that Broad Street in Birmingham, once one of the UK's top circuits, has had more than its fair share of "To Let" boards of late. High rents and a lack of lustre are given as reasons for the vacancies. Among the boarded-up sites are Brannigans, Ipanema, Congress and Hard Rock Cafe. CGA's West Midlands researcher Chris Brookes highlights the popularity of Oceana in Chinatown as a key factor. Ipanema,
a Whitbread brand trial originally, is to re-open as Fogg's Bar, an "around the world in 80 dishes" restaurant, CGA adds.
Patton packs in Punch
Sad news indeed that the personable and approachable Francis Patton is leaving Punch after eight years with the company. Patton, Punch's customer services director, is being replaced by Nigel Turpin, the former Spirit head of planning, who becomes director of corporate affairs. Punch boss Giles Thorley told staff last week: "Francis now feels that he has successfully completed what he set out to achieve at Punch and he is ready to move on to apply his experience and skills to other areas." Let's hope he pops up soon elsewhere.
