Neil Robertson: the pub trade's policeman

Neil Robertson faces some big challenges as chief executive of the BII — not least licensing reform and pubco tenancies. But he's the type who may be just tough enough to see it through, as Phil Mellows discovers.

Next year the BII celebrates its 30th birthday. Is it only 30? Even in 1981 the original name of the organisation, the British Institute of Innkeeping, must have made it sound like something out of the 18th century. Who keeps inns any more?

The BII was born old. But, like Benjamin Button, with each year it seems to get younger and more vigorous. Successive directors and chief executives have taken it to a new level: the tall Mary Curnock Cook, the hirsute John McNamara and now the fresh-faced Neil Robertson.

Since his appointment early in 2009 Robertson has quickly gained confidence in the role. He's relaxed, assured, and there's a hard nugget of self-confidence and determination hiding in that soft Scots burr.

His background is a rare mix of social work, training, government regulation and small-business funding, suggesting we have someone here who can take on anything.

"It's an unusual combination that happened by accident," he says. "The BII needed someone who could argue on behalf of its members and I like to think I'm good at that.

"In everything I've done I've gone in and developed that organisation. I'm someone you call in when that's what you want and at the BII there were clear opportunities to move forward. It's a very demanding and interesting job. I enjoy it most of the time, although some days I think there must be easier ways to make a living."

The BII was certainly in a minor crisis when it called in Robertson. Membership had slid from 17,000 to 14,000 and for two years it had suffered large financial deficits. Now the organisation is making a small profit and membership has grown in six of the past nine months, "encouraging under the circumstances," as Robertson says.

The turnaround has come with some pain. Last month four more senior members of staff lost their jobs, although they will make way for a new business development manager. A review of the organisation at the end of this month could bring more change.

"I had a strong feeling from the start that the organisation was top- heavy, and that we needed to take costs out at senior levels. Generally this is a great organisation, a hardworking group of people, and you can achieve anything with that.

But the culture needed to be a lot less bureaucratic. We needed the capacity to develop new ideas."

Progress has also come, Robertson believes, "by working harder for our members".

Over the past year or so the BII has, in fact, been remarkably active across a broad front, taking a practical leadership role in many of the issues the industry is having to confront, from the licensing review to taxation and pubco tenancies.

It has represented the trade to Government, accredited codes of practice and mediated rent reviews as one of the bodies that set up the Pub Independent Rent Review Scheme (PIRRS).

Robertson is most excited, though, about the less well-publicised day-to-day work that the BII does with its members.

"We are constantly in discussions with pubcos to help resolve situations, doing on average one pub a week. They are often difficult circumstances in which we offer informal mediation. It includes rent reviews through PIRRS, but also things like the winding up of businesses. It's a tremendous service.

"It's important the details are kept confidential, of course, and we don't want people joining the BII just to have a fight with their pubco, but I think it's time for us to shout about it a bit, and say this is fantastic."

Fit for purpose​

A longer term challenge, and one that the BII has grappled with for many years, is how to get the pub trade fit for purpose in the modern competitive age. It's the question that seems to exercise Robertson the most.

"We're in a position where we have pubs that have survived the recession, and now they need to ask themselves how they are going to compete. Our job is to challenge the industry to do that.

"Every six weeks I meet senior BII members in the regions and that gives me fantastic feedback. And although we have to be careful not to extrapolate from that to the industry as a whole, the message is that like-for-like takes are up, costs are up and margins are down. So they're not making as much money; their businesses are more marginal.

"BII members tend not to go bust. They've done well early in their careers, so they're able to retire when it gets more difficult, and many have done that in the past couple of years.The business can still be rewarding for those who remain, but it's not going to go back to being easy. It's hard running your own business and I'm constantly impressed by what our members can achieve.

"The good thing is that not many people will disagree with me on the operational challenges. There's no need to create a crisis to get change. But there are frustrations."

The biggest has always been at the heart of the BII's work as a body seeking to raise professional standards in the pub trade — training.

"We've got good qualifications, but people don't do enough training. Businesses that train do better. It's hard to get that across. People understand that, but it's connecting it with action. There are so many pressures on operators and that makes it difficult. But if we don't do it we'll lose out in the new economy.

Pubs are competing with people who are getting better and better at what they do — cinemas, for instance, and even bingo."

Maintaining staff​

Next year Robertson aims to "come up with a better career development framework for the industry to attract and keep the best staff". He has floated the idea of the "average competent operator", defined by the BII's own basic qualification.

"The MBII should be the default standard that every operator aims for," he explains. "We need to make that a reality."

He also wants to see new licensees better prepared, and is proposing pre-entry awareness training.

"People need a hand when they first come into the industry. They only get 10% of what they should get, in my view."

If that isn't enough, we have the wider political context to contend with, something Robertson, with his background, is well tuned to.

"It's a busy Government, and it's unlikely to have a neutral impact. There will be changes and it will add cost for the industry — local taxes, licence fees, defending against complaints.

"They've got a mandate to do that. We've got to be realistic — we can't complain too much and we have to respect the fact that there's a real public concern about licensing.

"The big worry for me, though, is that operators will be deterred from investing. Why would you take a risk if there's a possibility that there will be an objection and you'll have your licence suspended?

"On the positive side, we've secured a broad acceptance that the on-trade is not the primary problem in relation to health. Most accept that now. The role of the on-trade is better understood — that pubs are places where community happens — where, for the Conservatives, Big Society happens."