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An open letter to Ted Tuppen, Chief Executive, Enterprise Inns
Dying For The Pub Trade
Dear Mr Tuppen, Recently, one of your employees called me a ‘mad Irish landlord’. Well, I am an ex-landlord now, thanks to you and your fellow property company magnates. But I am Irish and I am mad, mad as hell, so angry about what you and your kind have done to me and continue to do to the pub trade that I love. So, I am doing the only thing left to me to draw attention to what is happening - I am going on hunger strike. If you don’t believe me, come to the Punch and Judy, Tonbridge, Kent after 24th and see for yourself. The things that you and your people have done to ruin me and my business are typical of what’s happening across the pub trade today. Although I have written to you personally in the past, I have no doubt that you have no idea about what is going on, so I’ll tell you. I owned the leases on three pubs in Tonbridge, Kent. I have been a successful landlord for over 15 years and had a very good working relationship with Whitbread (a proper brewer, not a property company). The pub trade has changed for the worse since companies such as yours have got involved in it.. There’s the exorbitant rent and the steep mark up on tied beers, which take at least 55% of my potential profit out of the business. There’s the way in which you pass on all price rises to me, instantly, squeezing my margin and leaving me to deal with the customers and the market forces. And then there’s the so-called support you give me: You give me a relationship manager who defames my character in public around the town, exhibiting racial prejudice and unprofessional conduct. You set up a new pub in direct competition to mine – actually within 500 yards of two of my pubs and at a much lower rent than mine. You give this new pub to one of my managers, who knows my business inside out and (more importantly) my customers. You encourage her to take my customers, and steal my DJ and my music promotions. Then when I start to find it hard to pay my bills to you, you first deduct your precious rent, then property insurance and only after your property company is covered do you use whatever is left to sell me some of your overpriced beer. I’m short of product to sell; more of my customers get disillusioned and go elsewhere; my takings are down so the next week I can pay you even less. And so it goes on into what a friend of mine has called the “death spiral” of the pub trade. There seems to be no heart or soul in your company, nothing that acknowledges the rich heritage of the traditional British (or Irish) pub- a warm centre of social activity where people can get together and share a reasonably priced pint in a convivial atmosphere. And I’m not talking about the anonymous binge-drinking halls which are your greatest source of profit, but the small, friendly town or country pub which acts responsibly and is a source for good in the community. I know that you and your people mouth the words, with corporate slogans, media spin and hype, but underneath that façade it’s hollow, rotten, and dying. According to recent reports, 37 pubs are closing every week across Britain, already twice as many as there were two months ago.) In your greed and selfishness during the good years, carried on blindly and thoughtlessly into today’s market, you have bled your tenants dry, killing the golden goose which provided you with so much for so long. No wonder that you and your fellow property companies’ share prices have fallen so far (over 50% for you, isn’t it?). You don’t understand the business you’ve bought into and you don’t know how to react to the situation which, exacerbated by the credit crunch, you’ve helped to create. You are killing the pub trade. And I am prepared to die to show the world what you have done. Most Sincerely,
Colm Powell |
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