ALE Summer 2004 No. 314 : Next section

The Pubco Tie

The House of Commons Trade and Industry Committee is investigating the tied trade arrangements of pub companies (pubcos).

Much has changed since the investigations of the 1990s: huge pubcos now dominate the market and use that power to demand huge discounts from brewers whilst charging their tenants full price. They employ other tricks such as upward-only rent reviews and five-figure fees off breweries for even being considered as a supplier. They rarely permit their tenants any free choice in beers ("guest beers") and their policies mean that small local breweries have little chance of selling to local tied pubs.

CAMRA is campaigning for all pubco tenants to be allowed free choice of at least one beer.

-> ALE 313: Local Beers for Local Pubs and Saving Your Local
-> ALE 297: Beer Orders - the Office of Fair Trading investigation
-> Back to Basics: The Pub, part 1
-> The Publican 22-Jun-2004: Licensees fight back at committee meeting
-> The Publican 24-May-2004: Punch to investigate its relationship with tenants
-> The Publican 20-May-2004: Tuppen: 'end upward-only rent reviews'
-> The Publican 7-May-2004: Parliamentary probe into pubco-tenant relationship
-> The Publican 29-Apr-2004: Prescott to investigate upward-only rent

ALE Summer 2004 No. 314 : Next section
Cambridge & District CAMRA