Good Pub Guide out today
The 25th anniversary edition of the Good Pub Guide 2007 is out today - with several retailers reverting to 1983's beer prices to celebrate. The Five...
Archives for September 27, 2006
Germ warfare
Fines, closure, irretrievable loss of customer good faith and the acquisition of a criminal record could be the disastrous consequences of getting...
Cheers
Called to the JDW bar Judges are often accused of being out of touch with ordinary people. But Snifter wouldn't say that about the judge he met while...
MyShout
Why tie pubs for beer when we don't tie them for food, asks Tony Jennings
PickoftheWeek
The Social Cardiff Price: £875,000 Tenure: Freehold Turnover: £497,153 Agent: James A Baker 01225 789343 The Social, a popular music venue, has a...
Problems arising as pubs seek variations
As we come towards the end of the first years of the new system of licensing, holders are beginning to look at small variations to their existing...
Smoke ban forces pubs to re-think
Survey of 3,000 Scottish community pubs shows effects of ban six-months on.
Keeping it clean
Your menu won't get off the starting blocks if your pub falls short of required health and safety standards. Our experts point you in the right direction
Lucky Smirnoff drinkers can win the chance to live like a Czar
Diageo is offering drinkers the chance to win a taste of the high life in a £2m giveaway for Smirnoff. The "Win the life of a Russian Czar"...
Keep up to date with what's on the market
Chips with everything McCain Foods has launched its new Signatures range, using chips made from British potatoes. The range includes McCain Rustic,...
Letting by Thwaites close to completion
Flexibility when it comes to negotiating leases or tenancies has helped make the Thwaites letting campaign a success, according to selling agent...
Wine secrets of Welsh inn
William and Janet Hutchings couldn't be happier. Not only did they scoop the 2006 Michelin Pub of the Year award, but their Champagne list was voted...
Fortune, then LESG took a huge tumble
A few more words on the demise of London & Edinburgh Swallow Group (LESG) seem appropriate. This is, after all, the most worrying collapse since...
Customers profit from online services
A record number of licensees are using barbox.com's "Gross Profit Calculator" to improve profits. Visits to the section have increased fourfold since...
Keep ahead of the game
How I got here I have been in and out of the catering trade since the late 1980s and have worked for Groupe Chez Gerard, Chutney Mary and Raymond...
Punch lets first 100 former Spirit pubs
Punch Taverns has let the first 100 pubs from the 725 Spirit outlets being converted to lease. The 100th inn is the Silver Jubilee in Canvey Island,...
Pay up or you'll lose pub, LESG hosts told
Tenants of the collapsed London & Edinburgh Swallow Group (LESG) have been told to keep up rental and insurance payments or risk seeing their...
Tenants urged to use pubco resources more
Huge numbers of tenants and lessees are failing to make the most of the resources they have available to them through their pub companies.That was a...
The human touch is key
Pubcos don't do enough to help licensees, we said last week following our annual survey of life at the sharp end. And what they do is often...
JDW to build first 'green' pub
JD Wetherspoon is set to build the greenest pub in the UK. The company wants to use a wind turbine to power a pub that is planned in Melton Mowbray....
Reports claim binge link to supermarkets
Supermarkets are encouraging binge-drinking by selling cheap booze, two more submissions to the Competition Commission have claimed. A submission...
L&ES licensees still unhappy
London & Edinburgh Swallow Group (L&ES) licensees remain unhappy with the situation over beer supplies despite reassurances from the...
Shut freeholds a hit
There are great benefits to buying pubs that have been closed down, claims John Williams, managing director of agent Sidney Phillips. The agency,...
Licensing@aol.com
Licensees must check insurance QWe are hiring in some attractions for kids as part of the community gala day here which will raise funds for a local...
Minto Hotel, Edinburgh
Outlet profile The 22-bedroom privately owned Minto, set on a main road into Edinburgh about a mile from the city centre, faces plenty of competition...
All systems go
Technology aimed at pubs has never been so sophisticated. Jo Grobel kicks off a five-page review of what's on offer with a look at systems geared around food
Get set for rise in licence fees
For many years the fee for an annual (then three-yearly) justices' licence was pegged at a modest level, because the licensed trade was not being...
Wells & Young's set to overhaul rivals
The new Wells & Young's Brewing Company starts trading next Monday with plans to increase combined barrelage by 20,000 to well over 500,000...
The Botany, Maryhill, Glasgow
Pub profile A typical one-room bar with sandstone-faced tenements above it, the Botany is land-locked, apart from a small area cut into the steeply...
BarTalk
Are you sympathetic towards Richard Hammond?
The fight for the future
"GHOST TOWN Britain." "10 years to save the high street." "Your local pub may soon be extinct."If any of those newspaper headlines from recent months...
Minimum wage hike expected to hit trade hard
New warnings that the rate of the minimum wage will need to slow to avoid closures in the pub trade have been made in the week of the latest rise.On...
Laurel Pub Company gets its second major shake-up in a year
Laurel Pub Company's new chief executive Paul Symonds has revealed details of the pub and bar group's second major divisional overhaul in less than a...
MINIMUM WAGE: STOP RIGHT NOW
Threat of escalating increases could spell disaster, worried trade leaders predict
THE AGENTS
Perusing the Morning Advertiser last week, I realised just how much the impact of the smoking ban is preoccupying everyone - and yes, it is...
Pub manager charged over drugs
The manager of a well-known pub in the North East has been arrested for allegedly dealing in hard drugs.Around 35 police officers raided Y-Idols in...
The Lovat, near Clydebank
Pub profile A two-roomed community pub on the main road between Clydebank and Glasgow, this Punch outlet is surrounded by high-rise local-authority...
Smoke ban boost for pub food sales
More pubs are expecting food sales to increase this year compared to last year, according to PubChef's Food Report published this week. While...
Ambition fuelled by faith in portfolio
"An elegant solution" was the reaction of Alistair Darby, head of Wolverhampton & Dudley's beer and brands, when Young's announced it would be...
Scottish licensees face tough winter, trade leader warns
The winter months and tougher enforcement are about to tighten the screw on pubs in Scotland already struggling with the smoking ban, according to...
Candid camera
Sophisticated surveillance equipment can catch a person on film up to 300 times a day. Graham Ridout investigates.
Farewell to an inspiring brewer
My life improved dramatically, thanks to John Young. More than 30 years ago when I was working on a newspaper in Hackney, East London, a colleague...
LETTERs
Time for bosses to have a heart Having been involved with the licensed trade for 40 years, I wonder why so many people are leaving the industry after...
Five Mile House is top pub
A Gloucestershire pub has been named pub of the year in the 25th Anniversary edition of The Good Pub Guide 2007. The Five Mile House in Duntisbourne...
Barboxing clever
Online ordering service barbox.com quadrupled its business in just four years. MD Duncan Malyon explains why more pubs are joining its online revolution
Four in chase for Uefa Cup
A fantastic night of European football is in store tonight. The group stages of the Uefa Cup are just around the corner, and there's plenty of...
Proud of Your Staff: Royal Oak, Cheshire
At the Royal Oak in Cheadle, Cheshire, the staff have loyalty stamped through them.When licensee Tony Dunn and his wife Helen took on the community...
Twist, Dublin Street, Edinburgh
Pub profile A one-room bar with a downstairs club located in a part of the city designated a World Heritage site, Twist's landlocked site is...
Safety harnessed
Licensee Julie Batchelor outlines how she operates and maintains a food safety policy to keep her staff in the know and her patrons in the pink
Oxford Inns & Hotels takes over 240 former L&E sites
A new company called Oxford Inns & Hotels is now running a group of 240 former London & Edinburgh Swallow Group (LESG) pubs and hotels. The...
New Laurel pub chief talks about plans
Laurel Pub Company new chief executive Paul Symonds has restructured the company just three weeks after his arrival. Symonds' reorganisation has...
Pubs unaware of new fire regulations
Licensees claim they are in the dark about new fire safety regulations which come into force on Sunday (October 1).Business organisations have...