Pubs need a clearer voice

This magazine organised a UK Pub Retail Summit last week — and a recurring theme raised its ugly head.

Why does the pub trade continue to get unsympathetic treatment from the Government? Why does the proposed Licensing Act seek such a Draconian clampdown on the sector, despite the well-rehearsed arguments about the pub being the home of responsible drinking? Why can't the trade speak with a single, clear, coherent voice on the major issues?

We're not short of trade groups in this industry, are we? The truth is, though, that they're not terribly good at speaking to each other and reaching agreement. Often they're not even able to hold a consensus among their individual members.

Witness the debacle among British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA) members over the past few weeks as we've watched member companies calling for extra excise duty on different products in line with their own interests. The BBPA strains to represent the interests of beer, cider and spirit producers, as well as pub owners.

Tainted​

Wetherspoon chairman Tim Martin also argued at our event that the BBPA has become tainted by the membership of the big tenanted pubcos, which are blamed in some political circles for creating part of the financial distress suffered in the tenanted sector. What's surely needed is a more precisely articulated on-trade voice, an organisation that speaks only in the interests of pub retailers, large and small.

Has the time come for Mitchells & Butlers, for example, to think about whether its more natural allies are the pure-form retailers of the Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers (ALMR) than the brewers — its membership is a legacy of its former Bass incarnation.

And it's no good Tim Martin bemoaning the lack of coherence in pub-sector lobbying when he has declined to devote Wetherspoon time and money to support a trade body in a way a company of this size and importance should — again, in his case, you'd have thought the ALMR is the natural home. (Two weeks ago, TGI Friday, the 40-strong restaurant chain, joined the ALMR. One day in the not-so-distant future you can imagine the ALMR making the obvious evolution and becoming the Pub & Restaurant Association, with the BII folding its political efforts into this larger body.)

Angst​

I suspect that no amount of hot air and angst will change the course of the present Government's path on licensing reform. There are a couple of pieces of practical action that the industry could take, though. Is it not possible to find, say, 10 key things, a charter for the pub sector, that the industry and our key suppliers can agree on?

And anyone who owns and cares about pubs should be throwing their entire weight behind British Pub Week, which is a great way to remind everyone — customers and politicians alike — of the value of pubs.