Darby: time to take a more positive stance

In my neck of the woods the sun shone quite a lot this weekend. It was positively spring-like as I walked our two dogs, whose heavy panting signalled that the air was warming up. While there's still some snow to contend with, we have every reason to be more positive about what lies ahead.

We have had the news about John Healey's appointment as minister for pubs (better late than never), SIBA's continuing success, plus Whitbread and Wetherspoon's pub opening programmes. At the root of each of these stories is the consumer, also known as the voter to MPs, who is beginning to show signs of life after a pretty dismal period of history and who is prepared to reward businesses, and politicians, in touch with his or her needs.

It strikes me that a baleful consequence of this recession has been the search for someone to blame for our woes, whatever our walk of life, which has too often become a convenient excuse for not fixing the things that really matter. And the biggest victims of this mind-set have been consumers, who have too often been disappointed because we have been distracted from doing a great job for them.

Fortunately this malaise has not spread everywhere and we continue to read about passionate people in this industry bucking the trend by offering great service, food and beer to their customers. Time and effort is being invested by them in order to grow their businesses.

And this is the key as we move from winter to spring. It's time to concentrate on growth and to identify who and what can support its development. That's why thinking green, working with your suppliers and planning ahead (Easter, bank holidays and the World Cup beckon) are crucial to success. This week's magazine is full of advice on these subjects.

For our part we have announced this week the rollout of our Advance agreement and a price freeze on all but one of the draught products we supply. We want

to give our tenants and lessees as much room for manoeuvre over the next six months as possible because if they grow

so will we.

And don't believe that growth isn't possible. Pubs in our Advance trial who worked on giving their customers more have grown volumes by 5%! And let's face it, there are still too many retail outlets out there that disappoint whether they are pubs, clothes stores or coffee shops. Their weakness can be any good business's gain.

As an industry it's time to put behind us the darkness of the winter and to plough our efforts into delighting our customers whether drinkers, diners or lessees. And by taking a more positive stance we should reap the rewards not just from a recovering consumer, but maybe also from MPs sympathetic to our cause. Now, there's something we can all say cheers to!