All Bar One on trend with cask
Cask ale is an exciting and resurgent product, Part 48. Mitchells & Butlers' trendy All Bar One chain has started trialling cask ale after a company-wide 7.8% increase in sales. Four sites in London are giving it a go, alongside venues in Edinburgh and Bath. Sensibly enough, venues are selling cask ale with local roots, so it's London Pride and Adnams on the pumps in London, and Butcombe, for example, in the Bath outlet.
Fifty is the new sixty at Orchid
Good news for those of us getting on a bit — 50 is the new 60. Managed operator Orchid Group has lowered the qualifying age for its Diamond Club Card, where members who are clocking on a bit get discounts. The age was 60 but has been lowered by 10 whole years.
Regent's Asha's had a brimful
Anyone remember Regent Inns taking a stake in an Indian restaurant, Asha's, in Birmingham, in December 2006? The company invested in parent company Brandasia on 14 December 2006 through a convertible loan of £500k, which, if converted, would have resulted in 58% ownership of Brandasia. Brandasia's principal shareholder and managing director was Russell Scott, Regent managing director (operations). On 31 March 2007, Regent bought the shareholding of Scott, amounting to 92% of the issued share capital, for nil consideration. So how's the investment going? Regent's annual report states: "The business has yet to achieve profits after 18 months and the carrying value of the franchise has been fully impaired." About as well as the Old Orleans investment, then.
Cask monopoly takes control
City Diary heard this week from a tenant of a regional brewer, who reports that guest-ale policies have been terminated in favour of a company cask monopoly. The tenant reports that his brewery said: "It's simple economics". The licensee adds: "A lot of my customers drink London Pride and they're now going elsewhere."
Going to cash — and the beach
Clarity from Punch Taverns second-biggest investor David Einhorn on its 9.73% company stake. Einhorn, who was bearish on Lehman Brothers ages before it finally collapsed, is investing "long" in Punch. In other words, Einhorn thinks that its value will rise. At the end of September, Einhorn's funds had 74% long positions — or bullish bets — and 65% short positions, or bearish bets. In other words, for every $100 of capital, $74 is invested on the long side and $65 is invested on the short side for a net exposure of $9. For the record, roughly all of the three funds' quarterly loss was attributable to Greenlight's long portfolio. On his most recent quarter, Einhorn told investors: "We made some mistakes. In hindsight, our suggestion from last quarter's letter to go to cash and go to the beach would have been the better option."
Conditions too costly to bear
Doesn't seem fair when a new licensee ends up paying for a previous licensee's poor management. Dave Williams took over Enterprise Inns' troubled Foresters Arms, Westbury-on-Trym, Bristol, in August after it closed. New conditions were imposed just over a fortnight ago by the council's licensing committee. They included a doorman being employed on Friday and Saturday nights, and Sunday nights during bank holidays. But as Williams says: "There is no need for a doorman. At £18 an hour for three hours a night, that's £108 every weekend. "I don't want the pub shut down, but I simply cannot afford this."
Sign of the times at Admiral
Times are tough, but some tenants are proving less than sensible on the way out. Licensees of Christopher's, an Admiral pub in Lincoln, Simon Hollingsworth and Nick Snookes, have gone walkabout. The pub remained open for business one Friday night as they were preparing to flit. A sign welcoming punters to "help yourselves" was taped over the bar with a smiley face. Admiral area manger Mark Lonsdale told the local newspaper: "We had no idea they planned to leave. We haven't been able to get hold of them since they left the property vacant and their phone numbers appear to have been disconnected."
Shameless show at Punch pub
A little bit of glamour at Punch's Victoria Hotel, in Barrowford, Lancashire. Newish licensee is Jody Latham, 25, best known for playing Philip "Lip" Gallagher in award-winning Channel 4 show Shameless. He's teamed up with lifelong friend and property developer Simon Graham to take control of the pub. Jody is using his show-business connections to persuade acts, including Reverend and the Makers and Happy Mondays dancer Bez, to perform at the venue soon. Other chart-toppers, such as the Zutons and the Charlatans, could also appear.