Puttin` on the Blitz (From Watford Observer)

Puttin` on the Blitz

9:46pm Thursday 1st October 2009

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Now I am one of 7,000 tenants of the pub giant Enterprise Inns plc, what this means is I lease the pub from Enterprise, pay them rent and the rest is up to me. You will never see the Enterprise name on a pub sign as basically the only thing that all the pubs have in common is the freeholds are owned by Enterprise but the businesses inside are run by young thrusting entrepreneurs….. and old fellas like me.

The only other thing that all 7,000 tenants have in common is that we are “tied” to Enterprise when it comes to buying in that substance which makes a pub tick……….beer.

Naturally with the buying clout of 7,000 pubs behind it Enterprise is able to command some substantial discounts when negotiating with breweries, so naturally very little of that discount is ever actually passed onto their customers (me) and my customers (you)

So as a result we 7,000 tenants are forced to pay an average of 50 pence a pint more for our beers.

If we factor in the credit crunch and the downturn since the smoking ban then no surprise that 90 of the 7,000 have been forced to shut up shop and a further 800 are in financial difficulties.

Recently CAMRA ( Campaign for Real Ale) an organisation whose members have done much to keep the British Pub alive, criticised Enterprise for “over-charging” tenants on beer prices and rent.

In response Enterprise Chief Executive Ted Tuppen praised we tenants for our “blitz spirit” and urged us to “put some sparkle” back into our pubs in a bid to beat the downturn.

More had to done, continued Mr Tuppen, more of us had to do the simple things such as “wake up the hanging baskets, mow the lawn and put out new umbrellas”

So we`ve taken this onboard at The Three Crowns, our Winter baskets aren`t due in for a few weeks so I got up the ladder and picked a few dead leaves off the summer ones, there isn`t actually too much grass to mow following the recent dry spell, but orders are orders, and I`ve also put a couple of new umbrellas out, helps to keep your crisps going soggy I suppose

All I need to do now is sit back and listen for the ring of the tills