Pub trade 2010: everyone's a winner

The Morning Advertiser dishes out the accolades in its Alternative Awards (the AAs) for 2010.

Pub of the Year​

We've got not one, not two, not three, but four pubs of the year, starting with the Morning Advertiser's own Great British Pub of the Year, the Battlesteads at Wark-on-Tyne, Northumberland. The others are the Tempest Arms at Elslack, North Yorkshire, which won the Good Pub Guide Pub of the Year, the Hinds Head in Bray-on-Thames, which was awarded Pub of the Year in the Michelin Eating Out in Pubs Guide, and the Kelham Island Tavern, Sheffield, which scooped the Campaign for Real Ale's National Pub of the Year title.

Heroes of the Year​

AA loves a hero, and this year the award goes to (pens on table tops in lieu of a drum-roll please)… microbreweries and independent brewers.

As Bonnie Tyler once sang — though AA is paraphrasing slightly here — they're strong (increasingly influential), tough (on bland beers) and fresh from the fight (against a recession).

These small breweries have played a vital part in rejuvenating the cask-ale category, wresting back the nation's beer from the beards-and-sandals brigade.

Particular mention must go to the Castle Rock Brewery in Nottingham and Moorhouse's in Burnley, Lancashire, which have both made light of the country's current financial woes.

The former opened a new £600,000 brewing plant in August, enabling it to triple capacity to 20,000 barrels a year. A good thing too — seeing as a fortnight before its new brewery opened, Castle Rock won the coveted Champion Beer of Britain Award for its Harvest Pale Ale, and was being forced to limit supply.

Moorhouse's is also on the expansion trail, having opened an ambitious £4.5m new brewery project in November. The plant will push brewing capacity up to 50,000 barrels, and is set to include a brewery training school, visitors' centre, restaurant and function suite.

Fond Farewell of the Year​

Few in the trade will mourn Alistair Darling's political passing. At times it appeared he was waging a personal vendetta against pubs and brewers, and his dogged insistence on maintaining the duty escalator was unpopular with many.

Nevertheless, AA will miss the endless Blackadder-inspired fun to be had with his name — almost as much as the familiar sight of those Mr-Potato-Head eyebrows.

All eyes and their brows are now firmly fixed on Darling's cuts-crazy successor George Osborne, with next spring's Budget the first opportunity to see whether the coalition Government's stance will bring any significant changes for the licensed trade.

While Osborne doesn't have nearly such an amusing name as his predecessor, he was recently described in The Times as resembling "Hugh Laurie's Prince Regent in Blackadder, but with an iPhone" so the fun hasn't completely gone out of the Exchequer (which is something AA doesn't get to say very often).

Trade Personality of the Year​

As a trade, we might be short of a David Beckham or two, but there's still no shortage of candidates for this award — if we judge "personality" as an indicator of what's been achieved for the industry rather than the ability to quash all rumours of extra-marital nookie with legal threats and a natty line in scarves.

Under such guidelines, AA has identified several candidates from within the trade who have made a name for themselves this year.

John Longden, director of Pub is the Hub and champion of the rural pub sector, has again provided a lifeline for remote pub businesses who've been forced to reinvent themselves to stay afloat.

Meanwhile, retiring Federation of Licensed Victuallers president Dennis Griffiths has, with his endearing sense of humour, enlightened many a dark moment.

Julian Grocock, chief executive of the Society of Independent Brewers, can look back on 12 months of cask ale once again providing real hope in an otherwise struggling beer sector.

Stephen Gould, managing director of regional brewer Everards, described recently as a candidate for "sharpest tool in the tenanted pubco box", has been a trade pathfinder, thanks to his innovative scheme to set up new pub businesses with small independent brewers.

And finally, to the British Institute of Innkeeping's headquarters in Camberley, Surrey, where chief executive Neil Robertson has slowly been re-moulding the organisation he joined 18 months ago. Robertson is also boss of Best Bar None (BBN), which is working hard to give a new responsible image to town and city-centre night-time economies. He has achieved the difficult task of dealing with the army of licensing officers and council officials — who now swarm the BBN ranks — with huge skill and an urgently-needed sense of humour.

Campaign of the Year​

It is, at first glance, difficult to say whether 2010 has been a good or a bad year for the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA), but AA still feels it is the most worthy winner of this most coveted of awards.

CAMRA has been doggedly determined and studious in its campaign — which it's been running for well over 12 months — to force changes to the beer tie.

Despite the rejection of its super complaint to the Office of Fair Trading, and the latter's most recent refusal to take any action, the real-ale men are keeping up the pressure — and for this unerring determination alone, AA raises a glass of proper ale to all CAMRA members.

Whatever your view on the merits or otherwise of the beer tie, this is undoubtedly an issue that generates polarised opinion, and once again, it's the big pubcos that CAMRA has in its sights.

It is particularly concerned that licensees across the pubcos' large, unwieldy pub estates are being prevented from buying beer on the open market — and paying an average of £20,000 a year more for their beer.

The pubcos argue that abolition of the tie will see pub rents escalate.

What clinches the trophy is CAMRA's pressure on Government to appoint a pubs minister, Bob Neill. He was given the job after a few months of concerted lobbying. CAMRA does it again. The AA team stroke their beards in awe.

Trade Spat of the Year​

AA was almost spoilt for choice with this category in 2010.

"Moron-gate" — the public name-calling that erupted after Wetherspoon boss Tim Martin denounced Diageo as "a bunch of morons" when the drinks company called for equivalence across all alcohol taxes — was a loser by a narrow margin.

In the end, the prize was swiped by the James-Corden-meets-Sir-Patrick-Stewart-style showdown that took place when MP and Save the Pub campaigner Greg Mullholland crossed paths — and locked horns — with Enterprise boss Ted Tuppen.

The ongoing resentment between the two exploded into an unseemly altercation when they met at the Morning Advertiser's very own Tenanted Pubco Summit in June.

With Mulholland in the blue corner, suggesting that the world might be a better place if Enterprise expired, and Tuppen in the red corner, venting his frustration that the MP had sat in on too few of the discussions, and insisting Enterprise was helping pubs through the recession, the exchange turned so explosive that a planned Q & A session for the panel was scrapped.

AA is in discussions with Ban Ki-moon to see if he can chair the next summit.