The Northern Beer Blog

There are two companies in the pub industry I don’t like.  The first is Greene King, mainly for the fact that their beer across all brands in spectacularly average at best with very few exceptions, however some of their corporate traits as a pub owner, especially in the Scottish Belhaven subsidiary leave a lot to be desired also.  However the one I can’t stand is Enterprise Inns, the owner of over 5700 pubs across the UK.   Their treatment of tenants from a support perspective and the financial burdens its places on those same people with regard to rents and beer pricing is well known within the trade and is not an example to follow.

Their chief executive is Ted Tuppen, whom personally I think resembles Al Bundy out of the 80’s hit sitcom “Married with Children”.   Last week he came out against some elements of the Statutory Regulations of Pub Companies proposed by the Government to make the pub industry a more level playing field.   To quote, he stated that there could be “damaging unintended consequences” for the industry.  This kind of language is designed to scaremonger, something which I do not approve of at the personal, business or government level.

The system proposed by the Government would save each pub which is tied to one of the big six companies (Enterprise, Punch, Marston’s, Greene King, Star Pubs & Bars and Admiral Taverns) approximately £4000 each year by allowing them to trade on more level terms with free of tie pubs.   This is obviously not in Enterprise Inns interest.  Tuppen claims that the reduced income from each pub would “leave companies with no incentive to offer support”, following up later with “The training, the support, advice and assistance we give would be chocked off as we are forced to consider different ways of running our business”.

In effect he is saying if we get £4000 less from you, we will withdraw the same value of support from you to compensate.  This comes across as extortion akin to the loan shark threatening to hobble the debtor if he doesn’t get his money, in this case hobbling the business with lack of support.  The picture of business practices within the company is not building to be a pretty one.   This response to new regulation would of course look good on the short term balance sheet, but a long term growth strategy it is not, both financially and regarding its obligations to tenants who have sunk ten of thousands of pounds into deposits to take over an Enterprise Inns property.

Increased income for pub tenants, especially those which are struggling, would allow them to develop and market the pub to the local drinkers better, have the money to put on regular event nights and invest in updating the look of the premises.  This would hopefully drive more footfall, ensuring more beer is drank, hence Enterprise make more money in the long term from the lower purchase cost of drinks via increased bulk discounts from brewers.  In turn the pub landlords would still retain that extra £4000 per year to keep investing in the business to increase beer sales even further.

Of course even if he was not too short sighted to see the long term benefits of nurturing their pubs and tenants, I suspect he would advocate hammering them with rent increases which would all but negate the financial benefits of the increased business.  The Enterprise Inns empire was built on a pile of debt which still sits at £2.5 billion, down from £3.3 billion three year ago, and is under pressure to further reduce its outstanding liabilities.  That pressure is being put directly on the shoulders of pub tenants.  A drop in sales of 4.2% in their last set of half yearly results is only adding to that pressure.

Just like Belhaven, the Greene King owned pub company tried to use the courts to stop the competition opening outlets in Stirling where they hold a significant share of the towns drinking establishments, Tuppen and Enterprise are threatening legal action if they don’t get their way including judicial reviews and legals challenges within the European courts.  So from this we can conclude that the triumvirate of scaremongering, extortion of tenants and legal threats seem to be business ethics that Ted Tuppen embraces, a fact which does not inspire confidence in the company either as a tenant or investor, both of which the company is relying on.

(note : you can find a piece about my local pub which was an enterprise inns property until 2010 here and a previous piece about Enterprise here)

I’ll start this week with an update on a story I covered a few weeks ago.  Wetherspoons were attempting to open new premises in Stirling, but had encountered hurdles after Greene King, who operate in the town under the Belhaven brand lodged a judicial review to try and overturn the local council decision to approve the application.  Belhaven already ran 7 premises in the town making up over 10% of the town’s pubs.  The complication was that two of Wetherspoons core products are Greene King IPA and Greene King Ruddles as well as featuring three more of their beers on the guest list, hence they were taking on a major client.

Courts had asked Stirling Council to review the evidence and reconsider their decision on this basis.  This week they duly did this and concluded that they were right the first time, voting 4-1 to confirm the original declaration.  The development on the site will now start creating 50 jobs and investing £1.5m in the town.   In a week where it was reported that the rate of pub closures had increased to 26 per week up from 18 per week last year, any pub that serves decent ale opening up is a good thing.  Ideally it would be the small local pubs or independent premises which were opening, but we are in a economic situation where idealism sometimes does not come into play.

However it is exactly one these local pubs which appears to have a chance of a more secure future after it was granted the status of “asset of community”.  The Fox and Goose just outside Hebden Bridge was put up for sale because of the owner’s Julia Warren ill-health and there was fears that it could be purchased by one of the big chains and lose its identity and reputation for serving many lesser known beers.   To gain the status the “Friends of the Fox” had to show that it benefits the ‘social wellbeing’ of the local community. The council said it fitted the bill because “it was used by numerous groups and clubs including walkers, fell runners, cyclists, real ale enthusiasts, a bridge club, environmental groups and a history society and it runs a range of activities for the community such as music nights, quizzes and beer festivals”.

The successful campaign to secure the status which now means that local people have a six month window to raise the money to purchase the pub before other parties can make an offer was backed by many local community groups, the Calderdale CAMRA branch and other regional organisations.  The pub, which specialises in beers from smaller and medium sized independent brewers now has a group numbering over 100 aiming to raise the funds to purchase this community pub.

They have issued a draft share offer to anybody who is interested in investing in the project.  They plan to raise enough to purchase the pub outright and invest some money in refurbishing the public areas.  The pubs finances are profitable, with room for efficiency savings in stock management on its expected turnover of £166,000.  The group need £130,000 to purchase the pub (£85,000) and then invest in the premises (£23,000), the additional costs being fees and ongoing running costs post purchase.  The projects point to a five figure net profit within 5 years after all costs.

I’ve used this pub several times and it is a lovely little pub which concentrates on the beer and is welcoming to man and beast equally.  It would be a pity to see the place lose its distinctiveness just when Hebden Bridge is becoming a location for beer drinkers again after the devastation of the floods over the last few years.  Other local pubs like The Old Gate, White Lion, Shoulder of Mutton, Stubbing Wharf and The Railway are all doing good trade in the town, supported by venues like the Trades Club.   Although all of these pubs offer good beer, several offer something different, the Stubbing Wharf is known for its cider range and the Old Gate is known for supplying some very good craft beers, both cask and keg.   These pubs along with the Fox’s focus on smaller brewers and the other surrounding pubs simply supplying good beer all compliment each other, creating a balance which benefits the town as a whole.

As Russ Abbot once warbled in his 1984 hit song Atmosphere “I love a party with a happy atmosphere, let me take you there…”. The same can be said of pubs, especially when considering the casual visitor. A relaxed welcoming feeling will stop non regulars passing by your pub and putting the money behind the bar of the next establishment along the street. Walking in, being ignored by the bar staff and being stared by the locals is likely to send you scuttling out into the street quickly.

Atmosphere is a hard thing to pin down, it is not down to the amount of customers, decor, price or time of day. One of my local pubs is the Shoulder and Mutton at Southowram. It is the only pub to open through the afternoon during the week in the village and as such it attracts a small but regular crowd certain days of the week. In total there are at most 10 people in the pub for these sessions, but it is not cliquey despite the small numbers. Non regulars are made to feel as welcome as anyone else and although the pub may look empty with the drinkers congregating around the bar, the banter and conversation pads out the positive atmosphere into the rest of the room.

Citing another local pub, the Cock and Bottle, Bank Top, this time at the opposite end of the spectrum. Saturday night at 10pm you are two people deep at the bar at times, lucky to get a seat or table and the loud background hum of the myriad of conversations taking place can overwhelm your own at times. But the welcome is still friendly even if you are a solo drinker popping in for a quick pint. Both pubs are basically of a traditional wood and stone decor, with the Cock and Bottle showing it relatively youth from being totally redeveloped only a few years ago against a more traditional decor exhibited by the Shoulder of Mutton which has been open in its current form for many years.

The Sportsman Inn at Ploughcroft, Works at Sowerby Bridge, Stubbing Wharf at Hebden Bridge and the Red Rooster at Brighouse are among many in the Calderdale area all have that same ability to have an atmosphere which draws you in regardless of how busy it is or when you visit. Some pubs however don’t pull this atmosphere off all the time. I visited Casa near Brighouse last week for a pint of the way home, mainly due to the fact I couldn’t get a parking space anywhere near the Red Rooster on their very popular quiz night, my usual port of call when coming home from that side of the hill.

Casa is clean, modern, has friendly staff, a number of decent lagers and a couple of good well kept ales so for a quick pint it ticks a lot of boxes. The bar had almost every table occupied to some extent with a mix of couples, groups of friends and a number of lads watching the Champions League semi final propping up the bar. The main area was nicely busy whilst still having seating available, but there was no real atmosphere, it was almost as if everyone was inhabiting their own private bubble in which only them and their friends exist. The place seemed a bit soulless, devoid of the personality which the pubs previously mentioned all possess.

The pubs I have mentioned already are mainly long established pubs (if you ignore occasional periods of closure) so time could be a factor in developing an atmosphere, but Casa has been open for significant amount of time so it not as if it hasn’t had time to build up its own personality. Just look at places like The Brewery Tap and Friends of Ham in Leeds, they built up an atmosphere conducive to new and existing customers within a month of opening and have maintained that ever since. I will happily admit that Casa is technically a good bar where I am happy to go for a beer, but it is just missing that “spark” that other pubs have.

That spark can come and go however even in the most established of licensed premises. Recently one of the best known ale houses in the area closed down for a short period suddenly. After it reopened it took 2 or 3 weeks to build back up to its former atmosphere which just shows that even a small time of disruption can affect the public perception of a place for period which can be longer than the disruption itself. However a good pub and good licensee will get it back.

The Anheuser Busch InBev (AB InBev) company is one of the largest brewers in the world.  It was formed between 2004 and 2008 in a series of mergers and buyouts which saw Interbrew (then a major Belgian brewer) merge with AmBev (the dominant beer producer in South America) to form InBev who then brought out Anheuser-Busch (the biggest brewer in the Northern Americas) to form Anheuser-Busch InBev.  In the years since AB InBev was formed, the appetite for growing the empire hasn’t dimmed, the most recent purchase being of Mexico’s biggest brewer Grupo Modelo and with it the Corona and Modelo beer brands.

Even before this monolithic giant was formed, the separated companies were rapidly swallowing up or merging with a number of smaller brewers.  Each of the original 3 companies, Interbrew, AmBev and Anheuser Busch were all effectively formed by the amalgamation of that region’s or country’s major brewing interests.  All this means that they have a massive portfolio of brands, their list of global brands has some of the most recognisable lager names in the world including Corona, Becks, Stella Artois and Budweiser.  In all there are over 200 brands contained within the company now and according to a 2010 report at least 14 of them had passed $1 billion in annual sales induvidually.  In 2012, they announced a profit after tax of $9.4 billion on sales of $40 billion as a group.

This is a company who knows how to make serious amounts of money, however even in this context, their latest attempt to make more money from their customers in the US even seems cynical.  For Budweiser in that country, they are marketing an additional new “box tie shaped” pinched can to ape their logo.  The new can will contain a reduced amount of beer (334ml v 355ml), use more metal to produce and cost at least the same amount for the customer to buy (making it more expensive per millilitre of beer).  However they do point out that it contains 8.5 calories less than a regular can of beer due to the smaller volume of beer, but are only selling it in packs of 8 rather the 6 pack which the traditional can is delivered to stores in, thus negating the health benefits as inevitably the two extra cans will just be drank anyway.

The difference in the pack size is also a deliberate decision as it removes the customers ability to compare prices quickly on a like for like basis.  It also contains double the amount of aluminium of a traditional can, so it feels heavier and has a very similar total weight to the older design with less beer inside.  The deliberate sizing of the packaging to fit into the same cube of space is also tactical ploy to convince customers that the same amount of beer is contained in both designs.  Many other product sectors have been doing this for years, but generally 99.9% of beers cans look the same if you strip the printed design off, some are just taller than others.  The only one I know which looks different is Sapporo which uses a tall, ribbed tapered can design.

Of course the ultimate goal of this exercise is to cut costs and make more profit on each sale while avoiding raising prices during what is still a stagnant economy. But they are also trying to revive a declining brand.  Sales have been declining in America for 25 years, in 1988, one in 4 beers sold in the US was Budweiser, in 2011 it was one in 12.  The same year Miller Lite overtook it to become the country’s best selling beer.   Budweiser has become more perceived as an “old mans” beer there.  Of course in the UK, the Budweiser brand is a lot younger and still has that perception as a younger persons beer.

When speaking to the media they state “We know there are a large number of consumers out there looking for new things, the trend-seekers” . The problem is these trend-seekers are discovering far superior beers from one of the hundreds of small craft breweries which exist, a number which is increasing at a healthy rate every year in the US (mirroring the healthy state of the UK brewing scene).  Following on from this they say “We expect both our core beer drinkers and new customers to try it.”, but why would a slightly pinched can make you buy Bud when you didn’t before.  I can see their point about existing customers and the curiosity purchase, but will it be more than a one off choice before returning to standard cans.  I have my doubts.

I’ve lived in Halifax for 15 years now, all of them residing at various locations on Beacon Hill, however most of the time up here has been spent living in Southowram, a village it would take a lot for me to move away from now with the open countryside on its doorstep looking down over the surrounding area.

Over the years the village stock of pubs (I’m counting both Bank Top and Southowram Village when I refer to Southowram), has fallen from 5 to 2.  We lost both the Malt Shovel on Brookfoot and the Manor House in Bank Top not long after the turn of the millenium and the Packhorse in the centre of the village has been in a flux of being open, closed and in the charge of temporary landlords for several years until recent times since when it has become an Indian restaurant.

The two remaining pubs atop Beacon Hill are the Shoulder and Mutton on Brookfoot and the Cock and Bottle at Bank Top, both doing very good business and being well supported by the community.  These two premises are supplemented by the Social Club and the village cricket club for drinking purposes.  The Malt Shovel has been left untouched for many years and now appears to be a shell of a building which is being left to go to rack and ruin.  The Manor House has since become a small housing development.

The Cock and Bottle closed for a year in 2009 after several years of mismanagement by Enterprise following the departure of the long term landlords George and Margaret Pearson, but local developer Hutton and Cawood brought the premises in 2010 and re-opened the pub later that year after a very well done re-fit.  It was actually the pieces about the pubs past and present at the time which started me writing for PubPaper.  I still haven’t got round to finishing the trilogy of pieces 2 and half years later.

Looking at the historic list of pubs that have been present on the top of this hill, there have been 17 recorded licensed premises over the last few hundred years.   However the name which caught my eye was “Who could a’ thowt it” which was located in the valley on Sunny Bank Lane going down towards Hipperholme.  The pub existed from 1860 and served beer until 1933, finally closing totally in 1941 after which it fell into a state of disrepair.  An interesting note was added to the history of this pub on the Calderdale Companion website that there was a passage between the cellar and adjoining cottage to allow quick escape for illegal drinkers.

What is clear from looking at the history of pubs in the area is that if you had been present in Southowram in 1900, it would have been one hell of a pub crawl to get from one side of the hill to another.    Looking at any other major conurbation in the Calderdale area would probably give you a similar drunken experience at the time of course.  However Southowram as a village is dictated by its geography sitting on a relatively long flat topped hill.  It sits plum atop the crest straddling the route from Halifax to Brighouse, branching off to Siddal to service the extensive quarries sitting on that side of the hill.

As you peel off from the main route the buildings thin out and looking at most of the pubs throughout the village history they were all close to the main routes, if not on it.  However the ones which were off the beaten track showed where there was major employment to support them.  Going back to “Who could a’ thowt it”, it was located near the Sunnyvale Brickworks (photo’s here, aerial view below), the extensive remains of which are free to explore still today and cover 3.5 acres.  The area would have been a huge hive of activity employing many hundreds of men.  Large numbers of manual labourers demanded a lot of beer, which the pub was happy to provide, although the walk back up to the homes in the village may have been a challenge at times afterwards, it can be hard enough walking back from Travellers Rest, Hipperholme to Southowram after a few pints in current times, never mind after a shift at the brickworks.

By the time of the pub being opened in 1860, the now A58 to Leeds had been built so passing traffic was much reduced over Beacon Hill on routes such as this and the Magna Via packhorse track which used to serve Leeds.   The pub would not have been passed casually and though the origins of the name is not listed on Calderdale Companion, but I can only guess the name came from the surprise that there was pub there at all to the unsuspecting visitor to the area.

This week brings you part 2 of the Good Beer Guide retrospective, the year in question being 1989 this time.  Thanks again go to the Sportsman at Ploughcroft for lending me the book from their collection,  I hope to bring you the final part of this series in a few weeks covering the 2000 book from the same series.  The first thing you notice when you move 7 years on from the 1982 guide is that they now have a sponsor “The Solid Fuel Advisory Service”, complete with a 2 page editorial about how a real ale pub needs a real fire.   The second is that the artwork is much better in the earlier book, which had a “stained glass” style cover, the 1989 book has a rather ropey drawing of a fireside pub scene in its place.

Lager had really started to take a hold by the end of the 1980’s with imports from all over world being brewed under license in this country.  A single quote from the breweries editorial sums this up perfectly “The latest invasion sees Labatts of Ontario being pumped out across the North of England from such unlikely Canadian cities as Warrington, Sunderland and Hartlepool”.   There was a big push in Scandinavian lagers such as Skol, Carlsberg, Hofmeister and Heineken, all of which were brewed to a weaker recipe than their original homeland strength.  Fosters and Castlemaine XXXX were prevalent in many pubs after the owners of the brands brought up large shares in Courage and Allied Brewers and pushed the aussie brands out to the pubs those breweries supplied.  American licensed beers also began to appear with Budweiser and Miller Lite.

The authors of the book lament the dedication of brewing and marketing resources to these “pale imitations of foreign lagers” instead of boasting about the UK being the only country world at the time brewing bitter, mild, stouts and barley wines.   It appears from the 1989 guide that the choice of beer was fairly dire at this point in time, the number of independent breweries numbering 50 according to CAMRA, down from 100 a decade before, predicting the death of the UK independent brewing scene by the end of the millenium if this decline was to continue.  It is a major achievement that in the 24 years since we have gone to over 1000 brewers in this country, the vast majority being independently owned.

This is the confusing part of their logic however, they state that in the 15 years leading up to 1989, 300 new breweries were opened with half of them no longer in existence by the publication of this guide and in 1988 more breweries opened than closed for the first time in many years.  The copy of the guide in question appears to have lost some pages to the fire above which it normally lives, but it appears to contain far more than 50 indie brewers judging by the page numbers which remain.  This also counters the 1982 guide where there are over 200 such breweries listed on its pages, if there was this steady decline as suggested, you would expect there to be only 80 indies listed.

The authors of the book lament the dedication of brewing and marketing resources to these “pale imitations of foreign lagers” instead of boasting about the UK being the only country world at the time brewing bitter, mild, stouts and barley wines.   It appears from the 1989 guide that the chance of surviving the 10 years of the 1980’s as a indie brewer were not great if you were around in the late 1970’s either, the number of independent breweries left numbering 50 according to CAMRA from the 100 that existed a decade before, leading to them predicting the death of all of the these breweries by the end of the millenium if this decline was to continue, although I must say the maths may be correct, the logic isn’t.  It is a major achievement that in the 34 years since 1978 we have gone to probably over 900 indie brewers in this country from the 100 we had 34 years ago.

The tied nature of the pub business was still very much in force however, either by control of lease or ownership of the venue, and the doors of many pubs are “bolted shut” to breweries outside of the controlling group.    Conformity seems to be a major issue with CAMRA who cite the case of Watney, where the vast majority of tied pubs served the same 3 ales, Websters Bitter, Ruddles County and Ruddles Best.  However what is more concerning to CAMRA is the conformity of pubs, the main concern as we approached the last decade of the millenium being the attempt to tart up the nations public houses.   The spit and sawdust approach to pub design was deemed not acceptable by the major pub owning companies and an identikit approach to their estates was being adopted.  CAMRA called this “Operation Soulless”, you couldn’t tell one pub from another.  The pubs were developed to theme to target different people, many taking on a Tudor, Victorian, Art Deco,  Bistro, American Diner or Sports Bar look.

The yuppie market was a key target for the pub owning companies and significant effort was made to attract them, the problem being 3 weeks after you opened it was inevitable another upmarket pub would open nearby and the young affluent Golf GTI owning drinkers would move on to the “next big thing”, leaving you with an expensive refit and the same people drinking the same beer as when it was a spit and sawdust pub.

The legacy of this period lives on today with the streaming of pubs into set brands across the large estates.  Thankfully there are many unique pubs left for us to enjoy.  Lets make we do just that.