FURTHER ACQUISITION BY ASAHI
Beer’s world presence continues to expand. They have now acquired the Australian operation of AB InBev, which includes Carlton & United Breweries, for a reported £9 billion. The article in the Evening Standard of 19 July says that the proceeds will go to paying off some of the debt that AB InBev incurred in buying SAB Miller three years ago.
FAREWELL GRIFFIN PARK
Happily, under its news owners, Fuller’s are still having some community involvement. Fuller’s are ‘partnering’ (as sponsorship is called these days) Brentford Football Club for their final season at Griffin Park, with London Pride being the main feature.
WHAT’S IN A NAME?
London once had two contenders for the longest pub name in the county. These were the Ferret and Firkin in the Balloon Up the Creek, the Bruce’s pub in Chelsea, and the London, Chatham and Dover Railway Tavern in Battersea. The former is still open as the Lots Road Pub & Dining Rooms but the latter is long closed. The record is now believed to be held by the Old Thirteenth Cheshire Astley Volunteer Rifleman Corps Inn in Stalybridge, Cheshire. This is not contrived; it is the pub’s original name. The current owners have just reopened the pub after a three year closure and are proud to keep the name alive, although a new pub sign proved expensive because they were charged by the letter! Ironically, a nearby pub is just called ‘Q’. If you are in the area I recommend the Station Buffet Bar. If possible, try the experience of getting the train from Stockport.
GREENE KING RESULTS
For the full year to April, GK’s income increased by 1.8% to £2.2 billion with profit up by 1.6% to £247 million. This enabled them to reduce their net debt by £89 million to £1.9 billion. The early part of this year was not so good, especially with June being so wet but new chief executive Nick Mackenzie was looking forward to the Cricket World Cup and the Women’s football world cup for a turn-around. He was quoted in the Evening Standard of 27 June as saying, “Sport is a really important part of our overall proposition.”
SPREADING THE KNOWLEDGE
I expect that most readers will, like me, not have previously heard of ERASMUS, the EuRopean Community Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students exchange programme. The Eagle & Child in Ramsbottom, Greater Manchester, a Thwaites pub, operates a programme that teaches a group of young people, some of them with learning difficulties and disabilities, about the pub and hospitality trade and helps them gain nationally recognised apprenticeship qualifications. The project is led by manager Glen Duckett. ERASMUS funding is normally awarded to colleges and universities but the Morning Advertiser reports that Mr Duckett has been awarded a grant of €58,000, believed to be the first time a pub has received such funding.
The funds will be used to send twelve of the pub’s students on exchange visits to Spain and France for two-week vocational catering and hospitality projects over the coming two years. Mr Duckett explained, “It will be a project of their choice but designed so they can meet particular learning outcomes which I’ll help with. For example, in Angoulême, there’s a new craft brewery that I visited and met the owners of last time I was over there so one placement could involve working in the craft brewery to see how the French are getting into American and IPA-style brewing and what they’re doing in terms of that style of beer.” Mr Duckett also commented on the advantage of learning basic foreign language skills to help with greeting foreign guests in this country.
WHAT COMES NEXT…?
By the time that you read this, the country will have a new Prime Minister. Neither of the candidates have previously been involved in pubs or beer campaigning. Consequently, as reported in the Morning Advertiser, a number of trade bodies have written to them both to ask that they support measures to protect pubs. These bodies include UKHospitality (UKH), the British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA), the Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA), the British Institute of Innkeeping (BII) and Pub is the Hub, plus, of course CAMRA. The letter stresses the economic value and social importance of the brewing, pub and hospitality industries and asks them to, at least, freeze beer duty for the remaining term of the current parliament and conduct an urgent review of the business rates system with the aim of reducing the burden on high street businesses. It also asked for a review of VAT and beer duty following our leaving the EU to both encourage consumption outside of the home and to ensure that trade in food and drink with countries remaining in the EU is free of tariff. They are also looking for immigration arrangements to help pubs and brewers recruit key staff.
Brigid Simmonds, outgoing chief executive of the BBPA, emphasised the importance of pubs to their communities, not just tourism,describing them as ‘the original social network’. She added, “The number of pubs in the UK is falling and they need (Government) support now more than ever. This is why we and other industry bodies are calling for the Conservative leadership hopefuls to back beer and pubs. We have set out a range of measures that Johnson and Hunt could follow to help our sector and our door remains open for their engagement now and after the election result is announced.” There was no mention of the Pubs Code but, of course, some of the trade bodies involved might be perfectly happy with Mr Newby.
Compiled by Tony Hedger