St Austell accredited for lease code clarity

St Austell is the latest tenanted pub operator to have its lease code of practice accredited for its clarity under a BII-backed scheme.

The BII Benchmarking and Accreditation Services (BIIBAS) scheme was created in early 2007 and sees a group of independent industry experts scrutinise pubco codes of practice to ensure they clearly state what is offered in the lease codes of practice.

Cornish brewer St Austell is the eighth operator to achieve the BIIBAS stamp.

St Austell was commended by the BIIBAS committee for its "emphasis on tenant support, in particular through its award-winning training programmes".

The approved code is to be presented to new tenants as part of St Austell's "Guide To Tenancy' folder, which compliments the code and BII said "makes a very attractive and informative package".

BII director of membership Steve Howe said: "The St Austell code joins only seven others which have so far met the exacting standards of the accreditation criteria. On behalf of the BIIBAS committee, I would like to thank the team there for the cooperative way in which this process has been carried out."

Vicky Crossingham, recruitment and training director for St Austell, said: "As an independent family-owned regional brewer, we recognise that forming and maintaining excellent relationships with our tenants is vital to help them succeed. We take care to provide prospective tenants with clear, easy-to-understand information at each stage of their relationship with St Austell Brewery which helps them make the right business decisions.

"In addition, we have amalgamated our recruitment and training functions and back this up with dedicated support to tenants in all aspects of their business from accounting and cellar management to catering development, stock control and marketing.

"We are delighted that our efforts have been recognised through this accreditation."

The BIIBAS scheme is administered by two committees: the Steering Committee, which sets the criteria, and the Benchmarking Committee, which judges a code against the criteria.

Each code is examined and assessed for transparency, clarity, honesty and openness.

BII said "several other" tenanted operators have submitted their codes for accrediation.

So far Punch, Enterprise, Marston's, Fuller's, Trust Inns, Batemans and Charles Wells Pub Company have achieved the BIIBAS stamp.