MA web users say food is no holy grail

Morning Advertiser website users have seconded the motion that "Food is not the future", which was debated by operators in Brighton last week.

In a lively follow-up debate on morningadvertiser.co.uk, licensees at the Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers (ALMR) event said they had never seen food as the answer to the smoking ban in the first place.

"Eureka, the penny has finally dropped," commented website regular Bob Feal-Martinez.

"The more food pubs you have, the fewer customers to go around. But now this has been said at the ALMR debate, will the brewers and pubcos be more sympathetic to our situation?"

Andy Davis said he wished this had all been pointed out earlier - because he and others would have avoided "the rush to food".

Ken Nason said: "It was a logical conclusion arrived at by everyone, except the trade bodies, that food would not be a solution for all the nation's pubs.

"It doesn't take a genius to work out that with the existing shortfall in labour, sug-gestions to go down the catering route were only offering false hope."

But Dave Robinson said: "Food can be the answer for some pubs, but not for all. The key to success is finding something you do better than anyone else and concentrating on that."

The ALMR debate, which was sponsored by the MA, was conducted between financier Peter Hansen and Interpub's Eddy Passey, who said the pub food market was in danger of being saturated, and Dan Marlow of Spirit and Hamish Stoddart of Peach Pub Company, who argued that a good food offer was essential in modern licensed retailing.

Visit www.morningadvertiser.co.uk for more on this and other industry debates.

l Business Opinion - p10