Pub suppliers could do better in providing the right support for licensees

And in two-thirds of service categories, the majority of licensees consider the support they actually receive to be only partially useful.

The Licensee Support Survey, a study of 454 licensees, developed by iDraught in conjunction with the Centre for Hospitality & Retailing at Leeds Metropolitan University and the BII, showed that three types of support were most commonly accessed by licensees, with 75% using external services for  accounting and book-keeping; legislative compliance; and beer and cellar services support.

The one area of support licensees seem reasonably happy with is finance, with support from suppliers such as accountants rated at above 50% satisfaction.

Three support services — operations, marketing and HR — are taken up by 60% of licensees. However, a significant proportion of respondents describe this support as ‘not being of sufficient quality to add real value to the business’.
The best assistance was significantly more likely to come from small rather than large-scale suppliers.

Given the current economic climate the main concerns for licensees are in increasing sales and profitability (58% of responses) — with licensees recognising that food has the greatest growth potential.

However, the support from food production and service scored particularly poorly in terms of value, with more than half of licensees rating them as being of ‘limited or no use at all’.

The good news from the research is that licensees are keen to access help for their business. They see real value in support for beer storage and dispense, legislation, training and development, and employment law, plus understanding customers and markets.

Steve Alton, managing director of iDraught, said: “It certainly raises questions about the overall quality of support and how those of us who work with licensees can raise our game to add real value to pub businesses.

“Some of the findings within this report can certainly be viewed as challenging, but at the same time there is clearly a massive opportunity for industry suppliers and service providers to garner closer working partnerships with pub operators.”

BII chief executive Peter Thomas said: “The results of the research clearly show that licensees not only need support, but are actively looking for it, and we will now start to work with some of our key partners to develop qualifications and support packages to fill some of the gaps highlighted.”