Making the point on pricing

Trade union the GMB is showing no signs of letting up in its fights against the pubcos.

Figures released earlier this month about the price of a pint in tied, managed and freehouse pubs aimed to show that the amount pubcos are charging tenants for beer is forcing up the price of a pint for your average drinker.

But was this aim achieved? Well, sort of. The trouble is, in aiming for a big headline, the GMB almost missed an open goal despite the survey covering 5,000 pubs - an impressive number in anyone's book.

The union seems obsessed with the figure of 80p. In the press release that accompanied the survey, the sub-heading states: "Big pubcos charging an average of between £2.16 and £3.06 for a pint of lager - which is between 7p and 80p a pint above the average price at a freehouse such as Wetherspoons".

So in some cases it's 7p, big deal? And, of course, the other problem is that anyone at all familiar with the pub trade will know JD Wetherspoon pubs are not 'freehouses', despite what the company says on its signs. Wetherspoons is a managed operator, and known for its cheap prices.

As one poster noted on ThePublican.com: "Comparing with Wetherspoons, which is well known for being cheap, doesn't do them any favours."

However, the GMB pointed out that Wetherspoons is "free-of-tie", which was the point it was trying to get across.

So is the GMB's message being understood beyond the trade? The national press did not appear to swallow its line on the price of a pint research.

The Daily Telegraph​ took a particularly sarcastic approach, reporting that "a huge survey of beer charges in thousands of pubs across the UK has come up with the same conclusion researchers could have reached by asking at any bar up or down the country: a pint is most expensive in London." Ouch.

The Daily Mail​ was slightly more on message for the GMB reporting that the survey had found "massive differences" in the price of a pint up and down the country.

But the paper barely seemed to acknowledge, or understand, what the GMB was getting at, leaving mention of its campaign against the pubcos until the last two paragraphs of the story.

However, GMB press officer Steve Pryle points to some positive coverage in local papers.

"We find this gets the debate going a lot better than just a few paragraphs in the national papers," he said. "In Cambridge, they did a survey of the town to see what the pubs were charging."

Dig deeper

In fact, a closer inspection of the regional figures shows this research, carried out by industry analyst CGA Strategy, was far from a waste of time for the GMB.

In the vast majority of regions, true independent freehouses are charging significantly less for a pint than tied pubs.

In London, for example, the average price of a pint of standard lager is £2.54, compared to the average for a Punch Taverns pub of £2.81 and Enterprise Inns at £2.85.

In East Anglia, Punch and Enterprise tenants are charging between 22p and 24p more respectively than the average freehold.

The areas where the difference is most pronounced are the North East and Southern counties regions. In the North East, on average Enterprise pubs are charging 33p more than the average freehouse for a pint, with Punch tenants charging an average 29p more, according to the survey.

While in the Southern counties region - the survey states that the average freehouse is charging 27p less than the average Punch pub and 34p less than the average Enterprise pub.

Clearly, these figures show that drinkers, in most cases, are paying more in pubs owned by pubcos than they are in freehouses.

This is, of course, what the GMB was hoping to prove all along - that tied houses are being forced to charge inflated prices compared to freehouses.

Interestingly however, but unsurprisingly, these figures fly in the face of British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA) numbers released earlier this year suggesting this was not the case.

Its 2009 Statistical Handbook states that the average price of a pint in tenanted/leased pubs was £2.66, the same as an "independent" pub.

Mark Hastings, the BBPA's communications director, argued the GMB was comparing "chalk and cheese" in its survey.

He also said the survey was far less comprehensive than the BBPA's own research.

"Ours is a much larger sample and the GMB figures relate to just one moment in time this year - prices shift throughout the year. They are just taking a tiny snapshot," he said.

The GMB has said it will present these figures to the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) as part of the body's look at CAMRA's super-complaint into the tied model.

And if OFT officials can look beyond the misleading headlines, they will have something to genuinely get their teeth into.

• Are you a pubco tenant or lessee? Are you charging more or less for a pint than freehouses in your area? Email news@thepublican.com

Visitors to www.thepublican.com had plenty to say about the GMB's findings:

"Did I fall asleep and wake in an alternate universe? Since when did pubcos charge or fix any retail prices? Last I heard the licensees in their independent businesses set the selling price. Don't they?"

Ken Nason​

"Last week I paid over £100 (ex VAT) for a firkin of bitter - that was a first. Two hundred yards away my neighbouring pub (a freehouse) can buy a firkin of bitter for £45. But of course I get all those added benefits with my tenancy…"

Chris MacLean (Shepherd Neame tenant) ​

"My point is that it isn't the independent business operators that are setting price; it's the marketplace. The market dictates the price that tied and free-of-tie pubs sell their beer. If this decision was solely down to the tenant they would be selling beer at over £5 a pint - £5 being roughly the minimum price a tied tenant should charge for a pint in order to maintain a viable business"

Steve Corbett (Fair Pint)​