"Running your own pub business can be great fun and very profitable." - Punch
Hogwash!!
It is often said that the ONLY thing that a pub needs to work is a good management team. The thing is, one of the qualities a good management team needs is business sense.
In my view, nobody who has business sense will fall for this...
The reality is that running a pub can have some pleasures, like fantastic customers - but it doesn't make most people much in the way of profits, certainly if you consider the long and stressful hours that are worked.
Previous post comments on the lack of customer service in some pubs. This is true - but it's hard to keep your sense of humour all the time, when you work for peanuts. (Although I do hope that when we are challenged on the quality of our ale, as does happen, we respond a bit better).
But to sum up - the days of the tenanted pub is going. The problem is, many that are offered on the open market as freehold come with a covenant to prevent them being used as a pub.....
They're advertising leases, not tenancies - massive difference. Some extremely profitable pubs are leased from Punch. The Harp is Covent Garden is one that ale lovers will know well.
A Punch lease involves a tie - and note that there are different kinds of tie - which means you're restricted in what you can buy and pay a mark up, but on the other hand the capital you need upfront is usually less than buying an untied lease of a freehold.
Surely if legislative action was taken to break-up the big pubco estates and ban the tie, all that would happen is that rents would go up dramatically acting as a bar to market for most people. Would that help pubs?
I'd stress I'm not an expert on this subject, so I might be missing something.
Sorry for the blunder - lease not tenancy - masive difference indeed..
I agree, legislation won't help and having a lower cost of entry for licensees is good.
I think the point is that running pubs is a tough job and it's getting tougher. Putting people in tough to run pubs, tied or free, is in my experience burning up the good "management teams" that the industry needs.
3 comments:
"Running your own pub business can be great fun and very profitable." - Punch
Hogwash!!
It is often said that the ONLY thing that a pub needs to work is a good management team. The thing is, one of the qualities a good management team needs is business sense.
In my view, nobody who has business sense will fall for this...
The reality is that running a pub can have some pleasures, like fantastic customers - but it doesn't make most people much in the way of profits, certainly if you consider the long and stressful hours that are worked.
Previous post comments on the lack of customer service in some pubs. This is true - but it's hard to keep your sense of humour all the time, when you work for peanuts. (Although I do hope that when we are challenged on the quality of our ale, as does happen, we respond a bit better).
But to sum up - the days of the tenanted pub is going. The problem is, many that are offered on the open market as freehold come with a covenant to prevent them being used as a pub.....
They're advertising leases, not tenancies - massive difference. Some extremely profitable pubs are leased from Punch. The Harp is Covent Garden is one that ale lovers will know well.
A Punch lease involves a tie - and note that there are different kinds of tie - which means you're restricted in what you can buy and pay a mark up, but on the other hand the capital you need upfront is usually less than buying an untied lease of a freehold.
Surely if legislative action was taken to break-up the big pubco estates and ban the tie, all that would happen is that rents would go up dramatically acting as a bar to market for most people. Would that help pubs?
I'd stress I'm not an expert on this subject, so I might be missing something.
Sorry for the blunder - lease not tenancy - masive difference indeed..
I agree, legislation won't help and having a lower cost of entry for licensees is good.
I think the point is that running pubs is a tough job and it's getting tougher. Putting people in tough to run pubs, tied or free, is in my experience burning up the good "management teams" that the industry needs.
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