Government confirms it will discuss the Pubs Code with British Beer and Pub Association which has deemed key parts “unworkable” April 20, 2016 The government has said it will discuss the soon-to-be-implemented Pubs Code with the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA), which has attacked key sections of the code as "unworkable". The Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) has said it will meet with the industry body after the BBPA slammed the new statutory code last week [...]
Posh pub group Upham brews £12m listing on AIM after success in Home Counties pubs and craft beer April 25, 2016 Posh pub owner and craft beer brewer Upham Group is set to join the champagne set as it announced plans to float on the AIM. Upham, which runs 15 "high quality" pubs in Hampshire, Berkshire and Surrey, said it hopes to raise £12m with the listing. It opened four new pubs in the past year and [...]
Despite cost pressures, JD Wetherspoon predicts results will be slightly better than anticipated January 18, 2017 JD Wetherspoon is feeling the pinch as costs are set to rise over the financial year, but chairman Tim Martin said the company is cautiously predicting its results will be slightly better than forecast after positive half-year earnings. The figures In the first half of the year to 15 January, like-for-like sales increased by 3.4 per cent and total sales [...]
Marston’s toasts a fine festive season January 25, 2017 Marston’s said it was on track to open 20 more pub-restaurants and bars and five lodges this financial year after “encouraging” festive season trade. But analysts warned the pub company could face tougher conditions and may need to rely on its value outlets Two For One and Carvery for growth as consumers tighten their belts. [...]
Ukraine’s central bank pulls plug on PwC bank audit rights over PrivatBank’s balance sheet hole July 20, 2017 The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) announced today that it had pulled the plug on PwC’s domestic bank auditing rights, after it had failed to identify a $5bn (£3.9bn) balance-sheet hole at the country’s largest lender in previous audits. It comes after last December’s state takeover of PrivatBank by the NBU, in a move aimed [...]
JD Wetherspoon’s boss is going on a pub crawl to convince you to vote for Brexit May 24, 2016 JD Wetherspoon chief Tim Martin is going on a pub crawl around all 100 of the company's drinking-holes over the next month to convince punters to vote for Britain to leave the EU. Martin is a staunch Brexit campaigner – he has signed several business-led letters calling for Brexit – and hopes to spread the word [...]
Sleepless review: A buzzing cast can’t rescue this low-rent Die Hard-alike May 5, 2017 Universally recognised as the greatest film about clambering around inside air vents ever made, Die Hard has inspired a long list of distinguished imitators, each of them about crawling around inside different kinds of building. Among them was 2011 French action film Nuit Blanche, about a bent cop who gets tangled up in a [...]
British Pubs Confederation threatens it could take legal action through judicial review over Paul Newby’s appointment of the Pubs Code Adjudicator April 24, 2016 A pub industry body has threatened it could take legal action against the government's appointment of the Pubs Code Adjudicator (PCA). The British Pubs Confederation (BPC), which represents 13 organisations across the sector, has said it would consider initiating a judicial review of the appointment of Paul Newby as PCA by the Department of Business, Innovation and [...]
How to do things differently in the pub industry: An interview with Marston’s chief executive Ralph Findlay June 1, 2016 It's fair to say it’s been a challenging decade for the UK's pub sector. First it was hit by the smoking ban in 2007, then by the recession in 2009. Revenues across the industry have also been affected by broadly falling levels of alcohol consumption. Pub companies have been forced to rethink their strategies to stay [...]
Easter celebrations boost spending at pubs and restaurants in March April 20, 2016 Britons spent more time at the pub in March, new research shows, as the early Easter bank holiday helped boost spending on leisure activities by 10 per cent over the year. Greene King’s Leisure Spend Tracker found that the early Easter celebrations helped drive a positive increase and levelled out any uncertainty felt after a busy Christmas period and a rather [...]