Punch hits back at new GMB claims

Punch has hit back at a new set of allegations from general trade union GMB, which claims more than one in three Punch pubs have changed hands in the past three years.

According to detailed figures published by the union - which it claims have come from an internal source at Punch - a total of 2,682 pubs in the Punch estate have changed hands in the past three years, with a number seeing new licensees come in more than once.

Paul Kenny, GMB general secretary, said "A lot of tied pubs no longer have regular tenants. This GMB analysis show at least a 32 per cent "churn" in the Punch estate. This high level of churn is not unique to Punch and will be replicated in other pubco estates.

"The churn shows that the number of closures in the big pubcos are the very thin end of the uneconomic wedge in this sector and that the level of business failures is high because of unrealistic rents and wholesale beer prices charged by 'pubcos'."

However a Punch spokeswoman said: "The figures used are totally incorrect and highly misleading."

The incident is the second time the union has spoken out on the beer tie, after publishing data earlier this month claiming to show that a total of 1,131 pubs belonging to seven pubcos have closed over the past three years.

A spokesman for the union said it had begun speaking out on the beer tie following requests from members who had left other industries and taken over pubs, only to run into difficulties.