E-Malt.com News article: United Kingdom: Pub landlords struggling for cheaper beer

Thousands of Britain’s pub landlords are to vote on industrial action over “unfair” deals with national pub companies – and it could mean cheaper beer, The Express communicated on December, 29.

If the action goes ahead, tenants in pubs across the UK will refuse to buy beer from pub-owning chains and will sell it on the cheap, cutting profits for the owners, in a bid to win a reduction in the amount of money they pay for supplies.

Most pubs in Britain are owned by large companies, referred to in the trade as “pubcos”, which lease out premises to individual licensees under strict tie-ins with the major breweries.

These pubcos buy beer at massive discounts from their tied breweries but sell it on at close to full price to the tenant landlords who have to buy from them. The GMB union said it was now campaigning to secure cuts in payments of £12,000 per landlord.

There are an estimated 25,000 tied tenants of seven large pubcos and the union claims they are being charged up to double the true wholesale price of beer. GMB national officer Paul Maloney said that if industrial action goes ahead, pubs will stop buying beer from the pubcos and instead buy cheaper beer on the open market.

He said the savings would then be passed on to customers during the dispute which could mean prices fall by 25p or even 30p a pint. Mr Maloney said: “The aim of the action by the tied tenants is to secure negotiation with pubcos to achieve very substantial cuts in wholesale prices.”

Stephen Alambritis, of the Federation of Small Businesses backed the move and accused pubcos of being “unreasonable” and “harassing” pub tenants.


29 December, 2009