GMV urged to join Fair Pint campaign

By John Harrington

- Last updated on GMT

Related tags Fair pint Tenant Gmv

GMV urged to join Fair Pint campaign
The Guild of Master Victuallers (GMV) has been urged to join the anti-pubco Fair Pint campaign

The Guild of Master Victuallers (GMV) has been urged to join the anti-pubco Fair Pint campaign.

The call came from GMV member and licensee Bill Sharp at its conference this morning.

Fair Pint wants the tie removed from all pubs, except those owned by brewers with fewer than 500 sites.

The campaign calls for the voluntary recommendations of the 2004 Trade & Industry Select Committee (TISC) report into pubco power, relating to how tenants are treated, to be made mandatory.

Sharp, who attended the Fair Pint launch at Westminster yesterday said: "I personally recommend we do support it (Fair Pint).

"Anything that can help support the lot of the licensee is worth while."

Sharp said he was not advocating "all-out war"​ with the pubcos but he said certain aspects of the tenant-pubco relationship needed to be looked at, including the AWP machine tie.

He questioned whether some pubcos were "quick buck merchants"​ and were dangerously close to putting profits above long-term tenant trading sustainability.

Farron meeting

The GMV outlined a four-point list of grievances about pubcos at a meeting with anti-pubco MP Tim Farron last week.

The points were:

• Beer: Price lists for tenants don't reflect the discounts obtained by pubcos. Any discounts for tenants are offset by higher rents.

• Rent: Pubcos should be more open and scrap upward-only rent reviews.

• Restrictive practices: Tenants suffer because they have to be supplied by their pubco's preferred supplier of gaming machines, for example.

• Building insurance: Tenants pay more because they have to go with the pubco's nominated supplier.

GMV executive officer John Madden said Farron found the points "very useful"​ and will discuss them with Business Secretary John Hutton.

Related topics Beer Legislation

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