Enterprise Inns, the leased and tenanted pub operator, is trialling a so-called “managed tenancy” agreement where the company has a greater say over the pub's retail offer.
This includes agreeing retail prices with the company and introducing open-book accounting, where Enterprise sees the pub’s trading figures, as well as mandatory EPOS systems.
In a presentation to analysts for the firm’s half-year results today, chief operating officer Simon Townsend said: “We are trialling a number of schemes where we define the retail proposition to a great extent.”
He reported “encouraging results” from the trials. These have focused on pubs with value food offers, but Townsend said Enterprise is “looking at a range of templates”.
It follows news that other major tenanted pub operators Punch Taverns and Greene King have recently been trialling franchise-style agreements. Marston’s Pub Company launched its franchise-style Retail Agreement last year.
Townsend stressed that Enterprise’s new agreement is not a franchise; he labeled it a “sort of a managed tenancy”.
Enterprise chief executive Ted Tuppen said the trial of the new agreement has “started well but we need more evidence to take that further”.
