Cask Marque to open centres for excellence

The aim is on driving up standards among tenanted/leased pubs and the free trade after a focus on managed pub groups last year.

It’s among a series of new measures announced by Cask Marque, alongside the addition of new technology to help pub companies benchmark results of inspector visits and improvements to on-line learning provisions.

At its AGM on Tuesday, Cask Marque said it would open 11 Training Centres of Excellence, strategically placed across the UK at the following breweries: Caledonian, Thwaites, Black Sheep, Marston’s, Wells & Youngs, Fuller’s, Brains, Robinsons, Greene King, Wadworth and Palmers.

Courses will be based on the BII Award in Beer and Cellar Quality and those attending will gain a BII qualification.

Wider audience​

Cask Marque director Paul Nunny said: "Last year we undertook cellar management training for many of the managed pub groups as they see the benefit of using best practice to drive up sales and increase yields. Unfortunately such training is not readily available for the leased and tenanted estate or free trade.

"We are therefore committed to opening 11 Training Centres of Excellence strategically placed throughout the UK and with the support of the BII and CPL Training and our corporate members we will be making these courses available to a wider audience."

In addition, from the new year all Cask Marque inspectors will be able to directly input their inspections results onto the current database so the information will be available on the same day. Corporate members can view the details for benchmarking purposes.

There are also plans to allow publicans to view their previous results and update their pub details, photos and information on beers that they sell on both the Cask Marque website and CaskFinder app.

Other plans include:

• Having a free e-learning service for bar staff in operation from January
• Building a website over the next 12 months, developed by the University of Essex and backed by the Government-supported Knowledge Through Process scheme, to be a “central communication for cask within the industry”
• Running Cask Ale Week from 27 September to 6 October, which will include the distribution of free pint vouchers in the Sun redeemable at 800 Punch pubs
• Encourage higher standards in the supply chain by having more depots accredited under the Distribution Charter; 42 are accredited to date.
• Doubling usage of the CaskFinder app. Nunny said nearly 100,000 people have downloaded it and 67,000 use the service each month.

Cask Marque has reported a 9% rise in accreditations in 2012, with 8,512 currently accredited. Last year 520 training courses took place.

Rainy day​

However, last year saw a reduction in margin for Cask Marque, which has not increased its prices in five years.

Nunny also highlighted a “lack of project work relating to cutbacks in the industry”. This led to a pre-tax loss of £14,220 in 2012, against a pre-tax profit of £12,571 in the previous year, and a reduction in its capital and reserves from £59,977 to £45,760. Turnover fell 3.8% to £1.57m.

Nunny said: "My board challenged me to grow the reserves of the company to £125,000 over three years so we have adequate cover for a rainy day. In year-one reserves went down so it’s back to the drawing board."

He added: "The performance in the first six months of 2013 is in line with the previous year, up on accreditations, up on training and down in project work against budget."