Brigid Simmonds: defending the tied-house system

Running marathons and army service are just two of the credentials equipping Brigid Simmonds for the post of CEO at the BBPA. Phil Mellows reports from the front line.

On a shelf in her office overlooking the Thames there's a memento Brigid Simmonds has kept from her first months as chief executive of the British Beer & Pub Association, way back at the end of last year.

It's a gizmo of some sort, dangling from a tube, and it reminds her of the uncomfortable day she sat before the Business Innovation & Skills Committee investigation into the tie.

"They were asking me questions about Brulines and I didn't even know how it worked," she confesses, gingerly inspecting the flow-meter — for that is what the gizmo is. "I know now.

"I've done a lot of select committees and that one was hard. I came into a situation where people had said things they might have thought more about. The committee had the right to ask whatever they wanted. What we needed was a clear, calm way forward."

It's calmness and clarity that Simmonds hopes she has brought to the BBPA since she took charge last September, and she certainly seems to have been effective in giving leadership to a body that, with a cumbersome council of 64, has traditionally has been deeply conservative and cautious.

With surprising speed she won agreement on a new code of practice for dealings with tenants that may — or may not — save the tied-house system from the legislators.

"We have to have a focused strategy," she says. "I've been clear about what I want to do, and I've found I've had a lot of support."

Simmonds has also launched the I'm Backing the Pub campaign, which has quickly gathered more than 100,000 supporters, including a strong contingent of newly-elected MPs.

The industry had a good election. Pubs featured prominently in party manifestos, and even got a couple of manifestos to themselves.

"Everyone knows about the rate of pub closures, and they're always really concerned. People clearly back and understand the campaign. We're winning that argument.

"I feel there's a genuine support for the pub, and I hope the politicians have picked up on the issues we raised during the campaign.

"I was disappointed that John Healey, the pubs minister, didn't consult with us before he announced his plans. But we are certainly right there on the political agenda now."

As an experienced lobbyist, though, Simmonds knows she's going to have a busy time getting the arguments across to the new Parliament.

"There's a huge lack of understanding of the industry among MPs, especially when it comes to the tie. We need to explain the structure of the pub industry — how it works. It's a very complicated subject and it's easy for them to sit in their constituency and say the price of beer is too high. They don't talk about the low rent and other support that tied licensees get.

"In this economic climate pubs are suffering, and people are going to make a lot of noise to get changes. But now that all our pubcos are committed to a change of direction, I think people do have to step up and take the advice and support that's offered them.

"The fact is that more freehold pubs than tenancies are closing, and that's because of the support tenants get from their landlords."

Does she think the row over the tie has damaged the image of the pub? "I'm certain it hasn't. The big problem for pubs is the tax. It's the damage done by tax and the regulatory burden."

As you'll gather, Simmonds is an especially determined defender of the tied-house system.

"A tenanted or leased pub presents a fantastic opportunity for people

to run their own business and it would be wrong to take that away from them," she says. "I also think that having a pubco behind them can encourage licensees to raise their standards — in social responsibility, in training."

This links to another theme Simmonds wants to get across — the developing professionalism among pub operators.

"The industry does a huge amount of training," she says. "Take the BII. It's the conscience of the industry. It's very good and it's doing a lot behind the scenes to champion the position of licensees — that's got to help. It's why we have a professional association. There's no equivalent in the gambling industry, for instance.

"I've been getting out and meeting as many of our members as I can and I've seen some wonderful pubs. We have to celebrate diversity in our industry."

Persuading politicians and others of the value of the pub is a strong feature of the Simmonds strategy. In the months ahead the BBPA will be highlighting "recession busters" — those pubs doing well despite the downturn, and showing how they're doing it, and also "community champions", the pubs that go the extra mile for their locality.

What she brings to the organisation here, perhaps, is a wider vision of the role of the pub — a vision that comes from her previous job as chief executive of Business in Sport & Leisure.

"I'm determined that pubs are seen as part of tourism, not as part of an industry that sells beer," she says.

There is also the matter of social responsibility. "As I see it, we have two clear advantages there. First, pubs do have responsible retailing solutions.

"Customers are looked after when they're in the pub and I think people clearly see that.

"Second, beer is a relatively low-strength alcoholic drink. Taxation is a real issue there. There should be a lower level of tax for lower-strength alcohol and we want to try and get that flexibility.

"It would be nice to have a special tax rate for cask ale, too - though there's more problems with getting that."

She'd like to distance beer from other forms of alcohol and give people a better understanding of the product — an understanding she's obviously experienced great pleasure in gaining in the short time she's had to get to grips with the product that forms the other half of her remit.

"I had a training session with George Philliskirk of the Beer Academy. He had malt and hops out on this table and for the first time I realised that beer is actually a healthy drink!

"We need to get that message out there, too, and there's work we can do around the World Cup there."

A wiry and athletic mother of three, with three London Marathons under her belt, and a woman whose passion for sport has dictated her past career, Simmonds would seem to some to be an unlikely beer en-thusiast — but she has, as ever, a sound rationale.

"You get iron deficiency when you're running, and beer is fantastic for that."

My kind of pub​

"I'm out in the trade professionally two or three times a week, but I've got three kids so I have to admit I don't go to the pub much in my own time. I go home and cook.

"But my kind of pub would be a family pub. We stayed at a wonderful pub in Scotland on holiday, the Applecross Inn, on the west coast of Scotland. It was a fantastic pub. The accommodation was beautiful and it served great food.

"The main thing for me, though, was that it was welcoming to a family. My kids are all teenagers now, and they were treated as individuals. We've come a long way from children's certificates!"

Key dates​

• 1978 — Brigid Simmonds joins the Women's Royal Army Corps, serving in the UK, Germany and Hong Kong before finishing in the Ministry of Defence as a staff captain in the directorate of public relations

• 1986 — Head of marketing for architect S&P

• 1992 — Appointed chief executive at Business in Sport & Leisure, growing its membership from 13 to 110 in her 17 years there

• 1994 — Joins the Sport England Lottery Panel, eventually chairing that body

• 1998 — Member of the Sport England board. Runs first London Marathon

• 2002 — Joins the board of Leicester City FC

• 2005 — Chair of the Tourism Alliance and the Central Council of Physical Recreation 2006. Awarded OBE for services to sport

• 2009 — Appointed chief executive of the BBPA