Channel Islands operator Liberation Group saw a profit boost of £1m after transferring a portion of its managed pubs estate to tenancy.
Speaking at the PMA’s MA300 event, Liberation Group CEO Mark Crowther said: “The two key things in this business has been transferring 20 of the smaller managed pubs to tenancy and then rolling out UK-standard tenancy agreements across the estate and that up-tipped the profit of the business by over £1m.”
Crowther explained how the Group’s incentive schemes for those who signed up had also had a halo effect on its entire tenanted estate, encouraging proactivity among its tenants.
“We’ve found when we were talking to tenants and saying: ‘This is a new agreement, this is what’s in it for you when you’re signing up - there are growth incentives and incentives for paying bills on time,’” said Crowther.
“As part of them signing up, we would then get the outside of the pub decorated. One of the benefits we did see was that the tenants would think: ‘Well, if you’re going to do up the outside of the pub, I’m going to do the inside.’ So then they spent money on the toilets and invested in the fabric of the furniture and so, from that, the whole quality of the estate has lifted.”
Liberation Group has a pub estate of 74 predominantly freehold pubs, “split as 21 managed and 53 attempted.”
