City Diary — 24 September
Harrison's House of Horror
Karl Harrison, one of Fair Pint's leading lights, runs four pubs, including an Enterprise lease and an M&B franchise. He's also got a sideline in producing horror films. In fact, one of his short films, On Edge, has screened at 35 major international film festivals and won Best Short (third place) at Shriekfest LA 2003. Just when you thought it was safe to run a tenanted pubco...
Craik keeps hand on beer pumps
It's congratulations to Premium Bars and Restaurants' former group commercial director Caroline Craik. After parting ways with Premium, she has landed the managing director perch at Salon Advance, a company rolling out an innovative software package for hair salons. Caroline's not severed all ties with the on-trade — she's still joint owner and licensee of the Royal Oak in Eccleshill, Bradford, a Punch Taverns lease.
Revolution's new offer is pants
The new Revolution Privilege Card costs just £4, and offers significant year-round savings on food and drinks at Revolution Bars across Britain. The card offers incredible value for money, which is essential for those living on a student budget. As well as money-saving discounts, all cards come complete with a "Vodka Survival Guide", and a pair of I Love Vodka pants. Students can never get enough clean pants, can they?
It's all working out for Roberts
Pub company executives have a history of migrating across to the world of sweaty gymnasiums. The latest is former Luminar executive Peter Roberts who has signed up to take a 15,000sq ft site in Cloth Hall Street, next to the Leeds Corn Exchange, for his new business. He is flexing his muscles with a new concept called Pure Gym aimed at growing consumer demand for high-value, low-cost gyms.
North meets east at Greene King
Impressive new arrival in Greene King's tenanted division. Chris Welham joins after defecting from Punch where he was one of four regional operations directors. He was in charge of Scotland, the north-west of England, including the M6 corridor down to Stoke-on-Trent, and north Wales. At Punch, he oversaw the profit performance of
1,530 pubs with a profit responsibility of around £105m. Welcome to East Anglia, Chris.
Future's orange at Taybarns
The retail brains behind Taybarns, Simon Ewins, reports that it's no coincidence the concept has a bright orange paint job. He tells our food
editor Jo Bruce that consumers react to the psychology of orange — it's come to be associated with great value. Think of Easyjet and Orange mobile phones.
Phoenix job for Wellington
Greene King's Wellington in Welwyn was closed in June by a devastating fire. The pub is tenanted by Innventure, led by former Mitchells & Butlers executive Chris Gerard.
City Diary hears the pub is likely to reopen in February/March time next year after a £1.35m investment. A source says: "It is going to be absolutely amazing." We'll be watching this space.
Haslam plans to up the steaks
Two weeks ago, we reported Enterprise Inns' golden boy Steve Haslam is opening his third Enterprise site — a pub just outside Peterborough. (His Enterprise site in the unlikely location of Ely, Cambridgeshire — population 16,000 — takes 50% more than the average JD Wetherspoon.) City Diary sources indicate that Haslam and partner Jo Drain are also set to launch a new American-style steakhouse concept in Ely.
Belhaven boss recalls '80s Foster's success
The newish boss of Greene King's Scottish arm, Belhaven, is Euan Venters who joined, like chief executive Rooney Anand, from Sara Lee where he oversaw brands such as Brylcream and Radox. But he knows his beer. He joined the marketing team of Grand Met in the early 1980s where he oversaw the launch of Foster's draught. He recalls: "We tested Foster's in Brighton and within a few weeks it had gone nationwide. At the time everyone was into German heritage beers so we commissioned a piece of research asking people what other countries they would like to drink beer from and the overwhelming answer we received was Australia." It occurred to City Diary a few Saturdays ago at the Oval how odd it was to see members of the Barmy Army taunting Australian cricketers (and teasing one of their own for drinking Pimm's) while drinking an Aussie lager.
