Man of Honour
I did mention that above, I know dozens & dozens of Landlords/Landladies screwed by Breweries when getting successful.
I've also seen a lot of those pubs levelled with the latest one being the Jolly Tar in Wardle, Nantwich.
Do we have any pub landlords here?
- Thread starter wez130
- Start date
I did mention that above, I know dozens & dozens of Landlords/Landladies screwed by Breweries when getting successful.
I've also seen a lot of those pubs levelled with the latest one being the Jolly Tar in Wardle, Nantwich.
Soldato
Yeah, steer clear of Punch
The owners of my "local" (in that, I go there the most) had lots of issue with Punch at their last pub; they screwed them over by trying to double the rent. The place was nearly always packed and now it's empty most of the time - which I'm assuming is far worse for Punch. They moved to a freehouse down the road which un-supprisingly is now packed almost all the time and couldn't be happier.
They did a feature on The One Show a few weeks back with them where they talked about all the issues with Punch/pubco's if you were interested.
Soldato
Yeah, steer clear of Punch
Ha! I used to manage a couple of Punch pubs back in the early 00's. I can only echo what has been said already. It's hard work and long hours but there are some fun times to be had. And there's not much money in it unless you're a free house and have a good kitchen.
Yes, i read about that yesterday, that's where the new law is coming in to stop ties. The following makes interesting reading.
http://www.theygotmeoverabarrel.co.uk/2014/09/tied-publicans-pub-tenants-and.html
However, if we did go with a lease, i would insist that all profit from food is ours as we are in a good position where i would manage the kitchen and associated finances / legislation / training etc and my wife would manage out front, i know i could turn a good profit from food alone and any profit from wet sales would be a bonus. I could also look at a pub with rooms to increase revenue too.
Soldato
They used to have good 'band' nights there.
The next one to go is the Star at Acton just down the road (for housing).
Soldato
I never though the Jolly Tar looked that inviting when passing - was it successfully / good?
Soldato
Serve good beer. Too many places serve crap pints then wonder where all the custom has gone.
Me personally I prefer my local CIU clubs.
Me personally I prefer my local CIU clubs.
Soldato
The trouble is many pubs don't have real choice about what they buy. They're only allowed to buy from one source, and often can't get beer from small brewers.
Man of Honour
I used to gig there at least 6 times a year with two bands.
It was a nice pub and I had a lot of great nights in there with my bands however the Landlord who had it for years was forced out by brewery price hikes. What really did him was that the pub only ran on oil and his £300/month fuel bill rose to around £1200/month.
When he left another Landlord went in but would only pay bands £100 so nobody played and eventually he was forced out.
It got flattened about a month ago but apparently I was told it was made of wood and should have been knocked down decades ago.
The new law only affects pub companies that own 500 properties or more. If you opt out of tie you move to a market rent option (MRO). How this new rent will be calculated is yet to been seen but you can pretty much guarantee that the pub co will want more. It will likely be calculated based on the extra GP you make on the lower priced beer. This is fine if you increase turnover but if it drops off you will be stuck will high rent.
Soldato
I don't mean the brand of the beer they sell. I mean the condition they serve it in.
Too many places I've been to and the beer has been watery, headless, head covered in spots e.g off, or tasted down right funky, etc.
Soldato
Ahhh, now that is an issue. Sounds like either a lack of sales or bad cellar management. The thing is lager and commercial cider is very easy to keep, as long as you clean the pipes regularly you just change the barrel when it runs out.
Real ale on the other hand you need to have the casks ready on a stillage, vented and taped at least 24 hours before the beer goes on sale. This takes prior planning put your beer on too early and it's starting to spoil and is already past it's best. Put it on too late and it beers not ready, the finings haven't had time to do their work, and the beer is dull and cloudy.
The other thing is the beers you put on sale, in the pub where I've worked we've sometime kept beers off sale. The reason being is we've got a similar less popular beer on, and we need that to sell out first.
To do beer well a landlord needs to be in his celler every day, he needs to train his staff properly, and he needs to employ people who know what beer should taste like. Where I worked beer would never go on sale unless someone had tasted it first.
EDIT: Another issue is line cleaning, proper real ale will have finings in the bottom of the barrel. Some of this will get sucked up when the barrel runs out, so the lines need to be cleaned with water ever time a barrel is changed as well as a weekly clean with a chemical pipe cleaner.
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Soldato
^ The pubs I end up visiting usually fail on that most of the time. I like my beers and real ales but getting a decent pint can be hard sometimes. Unless you're a generic Carling/Fosters/John Smiths/Strongbow drinker.
Man of Honour
If you're ever in Stoke try the Malt & Hops in Fenton.
CAMRA members travel from all over the country to drink in there.
Associate
If you are ever in Burton on Trent try the Roebuck Inn which is in walking distance of the railway station. They won Camera pub of the year a while back and always keep an excellent pint of real ale including Pedigree, Bass, Old Peculiar and even Old Rosie Cider for the cider drinkers. It’s a proper old fashioned ale house with a great atmosphere.
We recently won CAMRA West Cumbria pub of the year. Our beer is always good.
Associate
Pub landlord here as well, running/owning a free of tie Brewpub in the midlands.
IMO free of tie is the only way to really make money, but then again reading this thread you want to go for the food side, whereas im on the wet sales side myself. With no kitchen at all!
So it helps that I make my own beer....
IMO free of tie is the only way to really make money, but then again reading this thread you want to go for the food side, whereas im on the wet sales side myself. With no kitchen at all!
So it helps that I make my own beer....
I'd love the possibility of that too, but also to make a feature of it like the bridge tavern in Newcastle, they have their micro brewery in the bar as a feature.
http://thebridgetavern.com/microbrewery.html
I've had experience in brewing myself and i made a good Belgian style 8% beer last year. It also helps that where i currently work, we have a micro brewery on site too brewing award winning beers. I work closely with the brewers in there too. I use a lot of our stouts and porters for cooking
Associate
Nice one! Im jelly of that brewkit in the link.
If you check out my post in the homebrew thread in La Cuisine, that's my kit.
Not been open long enough to see if ill be winning awards yet!! (I can hope!)
If you check out my post in the homebrew thread in La Cuisine, that's my kit.
Not been open long enough to see if ill be winning awards yet!! (I can hope!)