A distraction from filling out your tax return ...

As many of you approach the deadline for filing your tax returns and the realisation of exactly how much profit (or loss) you made last year I thought I would share with you some extracts from the company report for Punch and for your convenience have worked out a few figures for you to digest whilst you work out how to pay your tax bill.

If you are one of the 2,000 pubs in the "turnaround" division of Punch (i.e. "non-core "or non-essential to the long term plans of company) this is Punch's stated policy from the company report:

"The plan for the turnaround division is to maximise short-term returns with a clear focus on costs and cash flow. It is expected that these pubs will be disposed of over a five-year period and will be phased to ensure a balance between speed of disposal and value. "

From the accounts published in the report  the EBITDA  (operating profit) the following figures can be calculated.  For those of you in "turnaround" the earnings per pub was  £33,122, from core pubs the amount per pub was £73,873 .The average per  pub (for all of Punch's pubs)  was £51,558.

Now look at your tax return.

Whilst you compare your EBITDA with the company's here is some more interesting reading from the report:

"Punch as a Group achieved 21st place in the Sunday Times Best Big Companies to Work For 2011, the only major pub company to be listed. This is a fantastic achievement and reflects our commitment to develop our team and our Company culture to make us a ‘Great Place to Work’. We were rated highly for open and honest communication from managers, staff feeling they could make a contribution to the success of the Company and teams being fun to work with, as well as being nominated for a special award for wellbeing."

How open and honest were your communications from Punch last year? Do you think it's fun being a Punch tenant/lessee? Are you bathed in the glow of "wellbeing" emanating from Burton on Trent?

And whilst they were all feeling so well and having fun here's some details from the Remuneration Report for Directors:

CEO Roger Whiteside earns a base salary of £430k, plus a chance to earn  250% in bonus (1/3rd in shares) and a contribution to his pension pot of 25% of his salary.

The total Roger got last year, including all benefits and bonus  was £931,000

The total all the 12 directors earned from Punch last year was £3,363,000, an increase from £2,432,000 in 2010.This means a total increase in their remuneration packages of 38%, with average pay of £280,000 a year.

Now look at your tax return again.

Picked yourself up off the floor yet? Now work out if the profit you made from your pub increased by 38% last year or were you able to give your staff a wage increase of 38% last year?

For those of you that have invested in Punch let's also have a quick look at how your investment performed from 2006 to 2011 compared to FTSE indices:

I know it's a bit blurry, but the orange line is Punch, the other to look at is the grey line which shows the Travel and Leisure sector's performance and shows that for a nominal £100 what your 2006 investment was worth in 2011. Bet that investment is looking just dandy now isn’t it?

Now over to Solihull for news from Enterprise. They report, for October 2011, an EBITDA of £366 millions, which means they earned £58,196 per pub.

From £500 millions of sales of beers, wines and spirits they made £200 millions of gross profit, not bad for just sitting there taking orders.

On the £198 millions of rent they collected (average per pub £31,483) they spent out £5 millions on repairs and maintenance (average £795 per pub) or just 2.5%.  Measure this against a total revenue of some £711 millions and it is just 0.7%! Compare that to the ALMR Benchmark Report (October 2011) on the running costs of a pub which puts average spend on premises repairs by pub operators at 5.6%

Look at your profit and loss account and I'll wager you spent out more than £795 on repairing and maintaning their assets (your pub) last year. 

And the directors? Nine of them, in total, earned £3,070,000 or on average £341,111 down 3.6%  on the previous year. Mind you they did increase their earnings from £2,240,000 in 2009 to £3,185,000 in 2010 which was an increase of £945,000 or 42%.

Ted Tuppen the Enterprise CEO still managed to claw in a staggering £910,00 in 2011 and £1.223 million in 2010;

So how did Enterprise investors fair compared to the market places then? Take a look at the graph below:

Not much better than Punch's poor benighted investors.

At least the Enterprise Annual Report spares us the PR waffle and cuddly graphics so prevalent in the Punch document.

Inevitably I am, again, drawn to the definition of zombie: “the body of a dead person given the semblance of life, but mute and will-less, by a supernatural force, usually for some evil purpose”  when I read these reports.

And you wonder why the likes of Vince Cable want to introduce shareholder vetoes on board salaries or wonder why the BIS committee in the Commons queries if tenants and lessees are getting a fair deal from pubcos? Not!

Shock, Horror! Bad Service annoys customers!

My industry spies report that bad service is biggest deterrent for restaurant diners.

According to Langton Capital (whose excellent daily intelligence email I receive (go here for more details ). 

"The new 2012 Square Meal Complaints Survey has concluded that bad service is the biggest annoyance for restaurant diners in the capital, amounting to 45% of all complaints in the industry. Ambience and decor make up a further 19.5% of complaints according to the survey of around 8,000 London restaurant consumers, which also found automatic service charges and disappointing or overpriced food to be significant sources of irritation in consumers."

So if you want some tips on Customer Service click here

How to make sure your pub is attractive to your local MP ...

According to a report in today's Telegraph you'd better make sure of the following things:

House of Commons Dining Room

Don't charge more than £2.60 a pint (this against the average national price of £2.90 according to Pint Price . com or the eye-watering price of £3.50 other London drinkers pay) 

Don't charge more than £4.15 for pan-fried red mullet with carrot purée and a soft boiled quail’s egg or serve Artichoke and tomato salad with truffle dressing for more than £2.05 (the cost of those meals in the House of Commons dining rooms).

Make sure you serve your chips in a tower so the chips don't go soggy and heaven help you if you charge more than £2.35 for a glass of Merlot.

Numpties

All this sage advice, of course, if you want to make sure your pub is full of whingeing, self-serving numpties who really have lost touch with life in the real world ... wonder how much their £5,8 million subsidy to their catering would have bought in the real world ... maybe it's time to ask your MP if "we're all in this together" still?

(Just as a matter of interest according to Horse and Hounds £5.8 million would buy Fermyn Woods Hall the home of the Brigstock Horse Trials) 

So our esteemed PM has spoken out about the need for morality in capitalism, here are some highlights from his speech yesterday: 

"We won’t build a better economy by turning our back on the free market...we’ll do it by making sure that the market is fair as well as free.  While of course there is a role for government, for regulation and intervention...the real solution is more enterprise, competition and innovation."

This has to be a triumph of dogma over logic if ever I heard one, whilst we are still reeling from the lack of regulation of bankers that has wrought so much damage to the world economy. That's why, despite cross-party support and a seven year inquiry into pubcos that under his leadership HMG still refuses to impose statutory control over pubcos.

"In this debate about the kind of economy we want to see, my position is clear. I believe that open markets and free enterprise are the best imaginable force for improving human wealth and happiness. They are the engine of progress, generating the enterprise and innovation that lifts people out of poverty and gives people opportunity.And I would go further: where they work properly, open markets and free enterprise can actually promote morality.Why? Because they create a direct link between contribution and reward; between effort and outcome.The fundamental basis of the market is the idea of something for something – an idea we need to encourage, not condemn."
 

It's a pity then that he doesn't realise how empty his words seem when pubcos continue to get something for nothing and his much cherised open markets don't exist within the pub trade whilst pubcos continue unfettered. Never has so much been taken by so few from so many with such little effort than is the case with pubcos (apologies to a truly esteemed previous PM for the pastiche).

Orwell himself would have been proud of this quasi-Adamsian doublethink!

Beer, gas, electricity ... should all be local "utilities"

Sunday newspapers can be a great inspiration at times and reading the various reports of how energy companies are able to squeeze extra margin out of we impoverished consumers by use of dynamic pricing (see article on the howtorunapub website) and how much local government will be strapped by the cuts imposed by central government ... here's a thought that should satisfy the free markets ... allow local councils to become energy suppliers in addition to all the other services they supply to us business rate and council tax "customers".

Very few of us alive today will remember when every town used to have its own water company, gas company, brewery ... it worked well in the hayday of Victorian capitalism so why not now in the time of the unfettered market?

If the energy companies can make £billion pound profits why couldn't local authorities do the same? I, for one, would rather buy my energy from a truly local supplier (such as my city council) as I prefer to buy my beer from local brewers (of which my city boasts several). Think of how much profit (or surplus as governmental agencies prefer to call it) that could be ploughed back in to local economies (jobs, infrastructure, revenue) and how much more our local authorities would be able to then put back in to local services (housing, the eldery, education, health, police, the arts).

Isn't this the point of the Big Society where Big Government gives communities the power to manage their own affairs... in the era of big government and old style socialism this was called nationalisation ... perhaps we could call this communitisation? We could have a whole new set of share issues in local utlitiy companies with councils holding the majority share held in trust for their electorate - I know it may not seem a huge amount but imagine the £125 profit per customer the Dirty Half Dozen made from their customers in 2010 was put back into your local community - in mine it would come to some £42.5 million. My city council slashed £26million from essential services last year alone!

(If you'd like to see how they made £8,55billion profit in 2010 click here for the Friends of the Earth report)

Like I said if local beer is better for the environment, local economies and the great beer drinking public why not local utlities?

That Was The Year That Was …

January saw England win the Ashes in Australia for the first time in 23 years. The Arab Spring starts in Tunisia. The Metropolitan Police re-opens its investigations into phone-hacking.

Pubs face up to the hefty increase in VAT to 20% as industry reports indicate that it could cost up to 8,000 jobs … over a thousand of you download my free VAT increase calculator … hope it helped!

February and Barclays Bank admits to only paying £113m in UK taxes on a £11.6bn profit … “you say to-mar-to, I say tom-a-to, you say evasion, I say avoidance”. Colin Firth bags an Oscar for the King’s Speech, whilst Gadaffi desperately clings to power.

SIBA (the independent brewers’ organisation) reports that indie-brewers are flourishing with over 40% reporting an increase of 8.8% in volumes despite a UK downturn in barrels brewed overall of 3.9%

March definitely came in like a lion with the earthquake off Japan’s coast, the ensuing tsunami and nuclear disaster at Fukushima. By the time we saw the Aides of March (15^th) it was only 500 days until the 2012 London Olympic Games and UK forces were actively engaged in attacking Gadaffi’s military at a reported cost of £1.75bn – good to see that HMG has that much to spare now other spending cuts have started to take effect! The euro-debt crisis deepens with a £21bn bailout for Ireland … and look another £7bn of "savings" get spent out!

RIP Elizabeth Taylor.

Pubs and brewers reel at the continued beer duty escalator as good old George imposes an eye-watering 7.5% increase in beer duty … way to go to stimulate the pub trade George!

April and we’re all asking “What the frack was that?” … or the residents of Blackpool were as minor earthquakes shake the area. Greece is set to get a 110bn-euros bailout, Wills and Kate get spliced and Charlie Sheen goes into melt-down live on stage.


Just when you think you’ve got enough red-tape to deal with whilst running a pub the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill gets its second reading in the Lords.

May, after 10 years of waiting and 40 minutes of gunfire it’s Bang Bang You’re Dead for Mr Bin Laden. It’s not the end of the world as predicted by Harold Camping – everyone knows that it ends in 2012 – come on! Love it or hate it (and the Danes hate it, it would appear) as the Danish government bans the importation of Marmite and shock-horror Queen doesn’t sup Guinness on visit to Dublin brewery!

Whilst she’s there the Irish government announces a reduction in VAT to 9% to help its ailing hospitality industry … how about it George?

June’s publication of an IPPR report shows that 2/3^rd of Britons think the pay gap between high and low earners is too wide – you think? “Happy Feet” – more like “Tired Feet” as an emperor penguin gets lost and turns up 2,000 miles away from Antarctica in New Zealand.

RIP Jeremy Allen the noted licensing solicitor. 


And if you hadn’t heard of BISC (the commons Business, Industry and Skills Committee) by now it announces the start of its follow-up inquiry into the pub trade.

July and The Guardian reports that the News of the World hacked Milly Dowler’s phone on the 4^th, by the 10^th that venerable (168 years in print) newspaper closes as Rupert Murdoch abandons his bid to control BSkyB. To paraphrase dear old Oscar: “To lose one tank may be regarded as misfortune; to lose £6.3bn of assets looks like carelessness” as the MOD admits it doesn’t know where all its highly expensive toys are.

The summer rapidly turns into the Summer of House Committees and Rupert Murdoch has a flantastic time in front of the Culture Committee, as we said goodbye to Amy Winehouse and hello to the world’s newest country – South Sudan.

BISC (remember them?) roundly criticises the British Institute of Innkeeping for not publishing online the level of beer discounts available against pubco rents.

August and it’s a return to the charts for “We Predict a Riot” as civil unrest spreads from London to cities as far apart as Birmingham and Manchester. Blackberry crumbles and Twitter calls to brooms the great clean-up brigade.

In the pub world Punch formally split in two (leased and managed businesses) and promptly  saw the share price for the leased company fall to an all-time low of 9.14p, some market analysts determine that Punch is now officially a zombie corporation.

Definition of a Zombie: “the body of a dead person given the semblance of life, but mute and will-less, by a supernatural force, usually for some evil purpose.” – does this apply to pubcos too?

September we remembered the Twin Towers ten years down the line and Manhattan was Occupied (as were cities across the globe in protest at the failure of capitalism). A big hit on the TV was “My Big Fat Gipsy Eviction” as Dale Farm was cleared at a cost of some £18m – I mean, I know bailiffs were well paid but this is ridiculous!

Meanwhile back at BISC and it’s report published this month calls for the government to introduce a Statutory Code Of Practice to curb the excesses of some pubcos.

October and Dr Fox just “doesn’t know him from Adam” (Wherritty that is) and promptly resigns. On the 5^th we saw the departure from this veil of tears of Steve Jobs, a passing that many mourned, unlike the passing of Muammar Gaddafi on the 20^th.

Hooray for the underdog as Karen Murphy wins an historic victory over BSkyB in the European Courts of Justice.

November saw the release of “Clueless” a movie starring James Murdoch set in the House of Commons and featuring the cast of the Commons Culture Select Committee in an everyday tale of media folk and parliamentarians. Murdoch declines to take on the role of the Godfather though!

Another landmark as long-term Youth Unemployment surpasses 1 million – well done the Coalition for a stunning 18 months in office!

RIP Gary Speed manager of the Welsh national football team.

Gee, thanks again to Mr Cameron for refusing to introduce a statutory code of practice for the pub industry as his response to the BISC report.

And so to December as Edinburgh welcomed its pandas and Cameron vetoed the Europe-wide treaty to save the euro (hands up anyone that thinks this will come to haunt him and us?) Some good news amongst the doom and gloom, though, as the Large Hadron Collidor at C.E.R.N. announced its first glimpse of the Higgs boson or sometime called god particle.

This reminds me of an old piece of graffito, which I will slightly adapt as “God is Dead” – Frederich Neitzche … “Christopher Hitchens is dead” – God. RIP Christopher - noted atheist and polemic. 


Let’s hope that 2012 is a better year, especially for the pub trade and that this time next year I don’t have to lead my review with "RIP – The Great British Pub".

If you do one thing this coming year make sure it’s that you support your local pub and your local brewer … remember if you don’t use it you lose it!

I’ll be supporting my local and many more I hope with this blog, the HOW TO RUN A PUB website  ... and with that I wish a ...

Happy New Year To You All

(P.S. my new year’s resolution is to stop using exclamation marks so much – cheers!)

Render unto Caesar ... but only as much as you should do ... & other stuff

September is the month when HMG takes the then current inflation rate and calculates how much the Universal Business Rate will be in the ensuing April.


This year the with inflation at over 5% HMG look set to rake in an extra £1.35 billion in commercial business rates. 


With all the pressures on pubs such as increased rents, increased supply costs, increased energy costs and the iniquitous beer duty escalator still in force we should all be looking very carefully at our business rates and where appropriate doing something about reducing them. To that end I have written a small piece on the How To Run A Pub website covering this very subject. You can find it by clicking here


Other recently added articles are on Customer Service and Staff Pensions


I hope you find all three articles useful.

Of Mice and Men ...

... and rats, cockroaches, silverfish and all things that you really don't want to find in your pub.


This piece appeared in the Independent newspaper on 21/11/11 "Infestation Nation" and it strikes me that with the reduction in public services under HMG's austerity program that we as publicans and sometime caterers should use our usually high standards of hygiene to add to our pubs' USPs.


All too often you can switch on the telly and see news articles and "grime-fighter" shows where they point up the horrendous conditions that exist in many restaurants (especially take-aways if you care to dignify their operations as restaurants) and the threat to public health poorly run establishments pose. 


Seldom do public houses feature in the media in these stories and we should trumpet our efforts to keep the British public safe from pest-borne disease. 

Now more than ever, with so much pressure on our industry we should be looking for ways to talk up our successes (both the glamorous and the indelicate).


If you think you've got an infestation that needs dealing with and you need a local contractor go to The British Pest Control Association - you'll find a register there and general information that might help.

The Game's Afoot ...

... well not so much a foot as a shoulder, a shoulder of venison that is.


Kindly donated by a friend who had no idea what to do with it, I agreed to use the meat in an old recipe I have for a venison and smoked sausage casserole. For added good measure, for those dining with us who wanted an additional sauce (some people need to mask the gaminess of it all) I also dug out an old recipe for redcurrant and port sauce - not only good with game but also a great compliment to chicken and turkey and can be served warmed of cold.


For the venison, once the meat was stripped from the bone and trimmed of as much fat and sinew as possible and diced I marinated the meat (about 1.5 kg) over-night in the fridge with a couple of table spoons of olive oil, some chopped garlic, 100 gm of fresh redcurrants, a teaspoon of finely chopped root ginger, a good sprig of Thyme and half a bottle of Castle Rock's Elsie Mo - a full bodied and very flavoursome beer. (Save the other half for the casserole if you can resist the temptation, if not go buy 2 bottles in, 1 for the cooking, 1 for the drinking!)


Next day I popped the venison (drained from the marinate) into some olive oil in a flame proof casserole dish on the hob to brown and seal the meat, diced 4 rashers of unsmoked bacon and 400gm of smoked pork sausage to add to this glorious meat fest. Once it was all nicely browned, I removed the meats and kept the juices in the dish to sweat a couple of large finely chopped onions, 2 large diced carrots, 500gm of button mushrooms and 500gm of diced white potatoes.


Once everything was nicely coated in the juices I added about 100gm of plain flour, the marinate and the remainder of the beer and turned up the heat until it was just simmering, keeping it moving to prevent the flour lumping. Then I put all the meat back in and put the whole lot in a pre-heated oven at 165C for three hours, taking out on the hour to stir gently and keep anything sticking to the bottom of the dish.


For the accompanying sauce I took the juice from a large lemon and a large orange and reserved. Then I finely sliced half the skins of both fruits and put to boiling water for about 5 minutes (you need to cook them until the skins are soft). Once softened refresh them under cold running water. Now take a quarter bottle of port, the reserved lemon and orange juice and slowly bring to the boil, once boiling reduce to a simmer. Now take a small jar of redcurrant jelly (Asda do a brilliant one with added port for a quid) and continue simmering until the jelly has melted, stirring all the while. Take 100gm of redcurrants, the blanched lemon and orange skins and a teaspoon of chopped root ginger and add to the mix, simmer for another 10 minutes or so and then allow to cool. 


For both the casserole and the sauce you can substitute fresh cranberries if you like, I've prepared both versions and they are both equally toothsome.


I served the casserole and redcurrant sauce with diced and roasted potatoes with chopped curly parsley and steamed savoy cabbage. 


Even for a couple of guests who hadn't eaten venison before this lovely autumn dish was well received.


I've not priced this one up in the usual way as the meat was free and I was cooking at home, however, had I been buying everything I would have spent about £26 on the ingredients. The recipe above would serve 8.


If you've never cooked venison or considered serving it to your customers I think the method I employed is a great way to introduce some game to your menu, the richness of the beer gravy and the sharpness of the redcurrants are a great juxtaposition of flavours and all in all it proves that game can go on the menu at a price that your customers can afford.

(Profuse apologies for the Sherlock Holmes reference hence the piccy, seemed like a good pun at the time!)

Time for a change?

Further thoughts on my post in October on energy costs ...

If you are changing supplier to get a more favourable deal then checking your meter readings at the point of supply change is really important.

If you would like to know more about getting the right deal then see my article on my website about things every Business Electricity & Gas customer needs to know.

For advice and tips on devising and implementing an energy saving strategy see my article on how to control and reduce your utility costs on my website.

Beer and Chocolate .... life really can't get better can it?

So tomorrow sees the start of British Pub Week 2011 and a celebration of one of our most cherished social institutions
 ..... blah blah blah!


The download from the Morning Advertiser contains a recipe to combine two of the things I cherish - beer and chocolate ... if nothing else comes from BPW 2011 then the recipe contained in the download from award winning  chocolatier Will Torrent must surely justify the whole event!

Can't wait to get to work on this one ... Dark Chocolate and Golden Ale Cake

Taking it easy, easy like Sunday morning ...

... that's what I trust the team at Great Oakley Brewery (near Corby, Northants) will be doing this morning after having what should have been a fantastic weekend at CAMRA's Robin Hood Beer Festival in Nottingham.


Congratulations to them on winning overall champion of the competition with their Gobble, they also won a couple of other gongs for speciality and bottled beers.


That's the only thing about judging at these competitions, you only get a number not a name to identify each beer, so having carefully assessed appearance, aroma, taste, aftertaste and "saleability" and totted up the scores you don't ever know the name of the one(s) you really like.


If their's was the one I and others seemed to agree was the best on our table (as we were judging their category for Gobble) then at least I know what to look out for ... must write to SIBA and see if they'll let me know which number corresponded to which beer.

Judging at beer festivals ... or how I learned to love drinking in the morning!

10.30 a.m. Slightly overcast but a mild 15 degrees C in Nottingham, the wind is light and the sun is desperately trying to push its way through the clouds, whilst I desperately try to push my way through the crowds.


Now call me old fashioned, but I've never been a fan of beer in the morning, even as hair of the dog, so the prospect of judging beers for a SIBA competition at a CAMRA beer festival was slightly daunting. I mean it's not as if you can taste, swill and spit like those light-weight wine tasters, you have to swallow.


The Robin Hood Beer Festival in the magnificent setting of Nottingham Castle's grounds is now in its 35th year and quite frankly I was absolutely gob-smacked at the sheer scale of it. One of the largest marquees I have ever seen set atop the castle mount overlooking the city centre plays host to a truly staggering array of artisanal ales, ciders and English wines, along with various hand crafted foodie offerings.


The statistics are simply amazing - over 300 brewers exhibiting and 31 of them fitting the CAMRA criteria for LocAle (i.e. from within a 20 mile radius of Nottingham) offering up an incredible 900 different cask ales and 91 real ciders. 


Luckily I only had to sit on two tables this year, both for Premium Bitters though, so the head is still banging a bit as I write this ... even by strictly limiting consumption to a third of a pint this means I quaffed getting on for 8 pints in less than three hours and starting at 11 in the morning! I can only thank the organisers for not putting me on the final tasting table for the SIBA Midlands champion beer (that would have been a further 8 ales to try from the other categories) as I feel an ambulance may have been required.


The feeling of bonhomie and camaraderie (or should that be CAMRAderie?) was palpable not only amongst the judges' tables (must have been well over 60 of us) but amongst the hundreds of paying visitors, exhibiting brewers and volunteers running the event. With all the doom and gloom prevalent nowadays it was joyful to see so many smiling faces and all well before the sun had hit the yardarm. 


Even if you were to visit every day of the three day festival and spent all day long sipping thirds of pints you wouldn't be able to sample everything on offer ... but that's the great thing about beer festivals you can re-visit old favourites and discover new favourites to be. At this year's Robin Hood you could spend the three days just sampling the wares of the 55 new brewers that have been added to the roster. That is 55 new brewers who have set up this year alone and produced a plethora of varying ambrosias ... to name check a few of the locals Black Iris (Peregrine Pale - 4.6% - crisp), Wentwell (Farm Hand's Bitter well rounded copper ale at 4.1%), Wellbeck Abbey (Spyke's Gold full of Goldings Hops at 4%) and one from a pub from my student days in Hull over 30 years ago ... The Wellington Inn (a darkly serious brew at 4.5%).


My final thanks have to go, albeit posthumously, to Spyke Golding, the recently deceased legend of the Nottingham CAMRA branch who gave so much encouragement to both brewers and publicans in the area. His monumental frame and good nature is still missed so it was a nice touch for this year's festival to be dedicated to his memory - including a cracking festival ale from Castle Rock of Nottingham bearing his name.


Now I must go lie down in a darkened room, keeping one foot placed firmly on the floor to ground me and drift into the arms of Morpheus ... 

Cool Brands 2011

In case you missed them in The Observer newspaper on 2/10/11 the top 500 Cool Brands for 2011 have been announced by the achingly cool Expert Council and a "representative" panel of 2,000 members of the public. I was surprised just how many were from the food and drinks industries - 79 in total.


What didn't surprise me, given the average age of the "Expert Council" looked to be about 25 (from their piccies anyway), was that not a single cask ale was singled out as being cool enough for this particular sub-set of the glitterati.


Still if you want to join the serried ranks of the uber-cool then make sure you are stocking some of their recommendations ... winners in the drinks section were, Guinness, Dom Perignon (12th coolest brand over all sectors), Innocent smoothies and Jack Daniels.


Whilst not many of you will be stocking the Dom, I am sure many of you will stock Mr Daniels, and here are a few of the others you might easily stock to bump up your coolness rating:


Asahi beer, Aspall Cider, Cobra beer, Lavazza coffee, Marmite (yay!), Salty Dog (artisan crisps), Stella Artois (despite their announced 7.8% price rise - outrageous), Tiger Beer


Or you could just ignore this and stick to what is really cool - the great British Pub serving real ale, good food and great company.


By the way, if you really must see the list then follow this link

Time to put an energy saving strategy into place ...

It seems that not a day goes by without some energy supplier announcing price hikes and not a day goes by without those very same energy suppliers having to admit they’ve cocked up some poor blighter’s bill. 

With all the energy companies now publishing their price rises it is vitally important that all business electricity and gas customers make sure that they don’t fall into the suppliers’ favourite trap of charging the wrong amount for the units consumed after a price rise.

The best way to avoid this is to take a meter reading at 12 midnight on the night before the price change and the very next day giving that meter reading to your electricity and gas supplier. If they will give you an estimated balance on your account at that point all the better, you will then be able to scrutinise your bill when it comes in to ensure that you have been charged at the correct rate post price rise.

Coincidentally you will be able to use the pre-rise estimate as a way of calculating how much extra your energy is costing you and ensure you are implementing energy saving strategies to minimise the impact on your cashflow.

If you are changing supplier to get a more favourable deal then checking your meter readings at the point of supply change is equally important.

I, for one, read my gas, electricity and water meters at the end of every billing period (gas & electricity monthly) and water every six months. I believe it’s better to give a reading than allow the supplier to estimate my consumption. It’s also a good way of monitoring your pub’s energy/water consumption and not storing up any unpleasant surprises. Even though the water is billed twice a year I like to take a monthly reading, I once had an unnoticed leak that put my consumption up considerably; however, as I keep an eye on things I was able to notice the spike relatively quickly, investigate the problem and get it fixed.

You can read my full article on how to control and reduce utility costs here

Cask Ale – the real “must stock” brand

There aren’t many things you “must stock” in your pub, Guinness, clean toilets, friendly well trained staff being a few, but the one that stands out whether you are food led or wet led is Cask Ale.

The publication of the fifth annual Cask Report by award winning beer writer Pete Brown, with the backing of brewers, CAMRA and Cask Marque is full of well researched and documented analysis of the Cask Ale market.

It’s not only packed with statistics about this sector of the UK beer market but also comes with case studies on how to benefit from Cask Ale and even if you don’t read the full 50 pages the 10 Point Action Plan on how to maximise cask ale sales is a great place to start.

Download the Cask Ale Report 2011 here

Well done, once again, Mr Brown and all the others involved in its compilation and publication.

Parliament's 7 year itch

So after seven years of parliamentary scrutiny and investigation into the role of pub companies in the pub industry the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee of the House of Commons has published its latest report into the state of the British pub trade.

Unsurprisingly for anyone who has followed the progress of this committee’s work on this issue the pub companies and breweries get comprehensively slated in pretty strong language.

The 60 page report, with another 104 pages of oral and written evidence from all sides of the industry (the pub companies, brewers, pub landlord organisations, CAMRA, surveyors etc) is unequivocal in its criticism of the activities of pub companies and their refusal to self-regulate and reform.

Prevarication, obfuscation, downright false testimony, distortion and utter contempt for Parliament by the pub companies is the common theme. MPs have come in for a rough ride recently, however, this committee has doggedly pursued the truth much to the credit of its chair, members and staff. Having viewed some of the TV coverage of the committee meetings I found it as compelling as the Media committee’s interrogation of the News International mob.

The pub companies attempts to stave off regulatory control now look to finally have been in vain, some of this has been going on since 2004. The recommendations and conclusions of the committee mean that government intervention in the pub industry is now, all but, inevitable.

Let’s hope that they are able to do something about the worst excesses of some of the pub companies (rents, terms and conditions of business, gaming machine tie, disclosure and transparency, pub company area managers, Codes of Practice, the beer tie) and do it soon.

Far too many hard-working, honest and capable publicans have been forced into penury by the rapacious activities of some of these companies for the status quo to remain. The chair’s final conclusion “…we are firmly of the view that statutory regulation should only be used as a last resort. However, are hand has been forced and we see no other alternative for an industry which has for too long failed to put its own house in order”  results in swift action to bring our much loved industry back into balance where the publican and the brewer/pub company both get a fair share.

I, for one, look forward to some furious back-pedalling and strident protest from the pub companies and trust that Parliament will not be hood-winked again and push on with statutory reform with alacrity.

It’s not only the publicans who are, in some cases, the indentured servants of the pub companies, who will benefit; the consumer will be much better served by increased competition and investment that will flow from reform. For instance the GMB union has calculated that the effect of the pub companies and the beer tie has been to artificially inflate the price of beer by as much as 80p a pint – no wonder the average price of a pint has now shot up to over £3.

Next we need to tackle HMG’s tax raids on the pub industry (duty increases beyond inflation don’t help) and persuade them to support the Thrive on Five Campaign – to reduce VAT in the hospitality industry to 5%. Other countries have taken the lead by reducing VAT for the leisure sector and it has resulted in more jobs, more tax revenues and increased  investment in the industry.

If you’d like to see a reduction in the price you pay for food and drink in your pub then sign the petition here

To read or download a copy of the BISC report click this link

Happy Autumnal Equinox

At this time of year as the evenings draw in and the weather changes to a more autumnal pose you’ll want to give your customers a little treat that reminds them of summer just gone and winter yet to come.

For me one of the quintessential flavours of autumn is apples and the most redolent of winter and Christmas is cinnamon, so finding a recipe that combines both has to be a winner. Originally from the deep south in America they make a slightly healthier alternative to doughnuts. Hence I call them Apple DoughNOTs.

The beauty of this recipe is that you can prepare the apples in advance and cook to order with a fresh batter in a matter of minutes.

This recipe is for 8 portions.

4 Granny Smith Apples or Other Dessert Apple

 240 gm plain flour

 3 large eggs (whites and yolks separated)

 24 ml vegetable oil

200 ml dry, white wine

2 gm sea salt

40 gm sugar

1 teaspoon Cinnamon

Method

Preparing The Apples

Fill a large bowl with cold water and squeeze in the juice of a large lemon.

Peel and core the Granny Smith apples, make sure you get all the pips out (they are really bitter and will spoil the sweetness of this treat). Slice the cored and peeled apples into rounds about ½ “ to ¾ " -inch thick. Place into the water, the lemon juice will help to prevent them from browning, especially if you are preparing them for use much later.

Preparing The Batter

First thoroughly sift the flour and salt into a large bowl.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks, wine and vegetable oil together until well combined. Add the mixture to the flour and gently whisk until a smooth batter is achieved.

In a separate bowl, start to whisk the egg whites. Gradually incorporate the sugar while constantly whisking. Whisk the meringue until you those stiff peaks appear. Stir in about one-third of the meringue into the batter to loosen the mixture. Fold in the remaining meringue.

This may seem all a bit of a chore but trust me you’ll end up with a much lighter batter that won’t overwhelm the apples this way.

Although the recipe I use says the batter should be used immediately I have found that if kept refrigerated when not in use this batter should last for a complete lunch or dinner service.

Cooking

Mix the sugar and cinnamon together and place into a shallow pan or bowl, place a little flour into another shallow container and along with the batter put these all beside the deep fryer.

Once your fryer is up to temperature (175° - 190° C), drain and dry as many apple slices required for the order. Dust them lightly with the flour and submerge them into the batter. Allow any excess to drip off before placing into the oil.

Fry the apples on one side until golden brown, flip over with tongs or a fish wire to brown on the other side.

Once both sides are brown and crispy, remove from the oil. Coat the hot apple in the cinnamon sugar. Transfer to a wire rack.

Serve warm with morning coffee or with vanilla ice cream as a dessert. These would also make a great offering for your Hallowe’en party as an alternative to toffee apples and as they are so inexpensive you could afford to include them in any free food you may be putting on for your event.

Costing / GP

Total cost for 8 portions is approximately £2.45 or 30p for each two slice portion, which means an 80% GP if you charge £1.80 per portion (not including any ice-cream).

Still Time To Cash In On The Rugby World Cup

“The pub is as much a part of rugby as is the playing field” – John “Todder” Dickenson (1950’s England Rugby Player)

This certainly is as true today as it was in the 1950’s only more so. With the advent of the Rugby World Cup in 1987 this truly international tournament is now the largest sporting event after the Summer Olympics and the FIFA World Cup. This year’s Rugby World Cup being held in New Zealand should be a corker with England in with a chance for glory!

It’s still not too late to participate in this great trade building opportunity for your pub. With matches being shown live, for free on ITV, pubs have a great opportunity to either extend their trading hours by showing matches live or by hosting special screenings via the internet using the ITV player at a time more convenient to their customers than some of the early kick-offs.

If your permitted hours do not permit early opening (some of the coverage commences at 6.30 am UK time) then you will need to apply for a Temporary Event Notice for each match you show. Unfortunately with a minimum 10 working days notice required if you haven’t already applied you’ll need to hurry to even show the quarter finals. Friday, September 23^rd 2011 (yes that's tomorrow) will probably be the last working day on which you can effectively serve these notice applications to your local licensing authority.

If you are going to support England, as I will be (not wishing to show too much partiality) then there are some rucking fantastic things you can offer.

On the food front if you are having an early showing then why not offer up a breakfast and beer meal deal or for evening showings then why not a good old English Bangers, Mash and Cask Ale?

There are some great real ales available to key in to the English theme – London Pride and Bombardier are just two that come to mind.

Don’t forget to deck out your bar and TV areas with plenty of St George (England) flags and bunting. You can show your pub’s support for England by kitting your bar staff out in England tee-shirts

How about an offer to your customers of England memorabilia (key rings, Zippo lighters) as prizes in a draw or quiz?

Don’t forget “Beer and Rugby are more or less synonymous” as Chris Laidlaw, the New Zealand All Black once said.