Tuppen: We'll back licensee support group

Enterprise Inns chief Ted Tuppen has said he is willing to back a new support group and representative body for licensees with the company's cash.

And speaking at The Publican's fifth Industry Leaders Forum in Oxfordshire yesterday, he said the time could be right for the Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers (ALMR) to step into the void and stand up for individual publicans.

"Licensees need a champion - it's unfortunate that that vacuum has been filled by a pressure group [Fair Pint]," he said.

"We need to engage a support group for licensees - and Enterprise Inns would be prepared to put a lot of money behind it. A number of licensees feel unrepresented, and can't get their views across.

"We have to have a situation where the licensee is protected when they get into an agreement. I think we should throw out the challenge to the ALMR."

Following the recent Business and Enterprise Committee inquiry Tuppen said it was clear that pub companies "have to address this idea that the licensee is somehow being misled".

Ian Payne, chairman of Slug & Lettuce-owner Bay Restaurant Group, said pubcos needed to be more transparent with licensees.

"The lack of transparency in tie agreements is currently giving poor operators an excuse when things go wrong," he declared.

Payne said that a straight franchise agreement, such as those operated by Domino's Pizza, see far more punitive ties than in the pub trade and a higher cost of entry - although the biggest difference was in the level of transparency in the agreement.

He added: "We've failed as an industry to make heroes of our tenants. I agree that there are not enough champions in the tenanted business."

Clive Watson, who heads up the 24-strong London-based managed operator Capital Pub Company, said: "The pubcos and brewers currently have too much power. But whether a tenants association offering support would make a difference I don't know."

See next week's Publican for more from the event​