MCA’s annual benchmark of the tenanted pub sector has shown the introduction of the pubs code has had little discernible impact on tenant/pubco relations.
The Tenant Track programme, now in its sixth year and surveying a record 13 pub companies, found the share of tenants saying their relationship with their pubco has improved is at 22%, up from 21% last year. However, the share of tenants who say relations have worsened has also increased, from 10% to 12%.
The report says: “The experiences of tenants are increasingly polarised, with one group seeing improving relationships and recognising the efforts made by pub companies, and another group failing to benefit from these efforts. Yet the overall shifts in pubco/tenant relationships are not as marked as may have been anticipated.”
Combining all 1-10 ratings in the study, the average score is 6.9 – up from 6.4 last year. When tenants are asked to give an overall rating for their pub company, the average is also 6.9 – down slightly from 7.0 last year.
In terms of individual performance, St Austell retained its number one spot in the Tenant Track programme and saw the biggest increase in overall ratings.
Admiral Taverns was once again the best performing national pubco, while Punch was one of the most improved companies in terms of overall combined score.
The regional brewers in general outperformed the wider sector – with Shepherd Neame and Thwaites as well as St Austell achieving the highest ratings on average, both on a combined or overall rating basis. Robinsons is consistently in fourth place.
When combining all 1-10 ratings, Charles Wells’ average rating increased the most, by 15.2% to 7.2, followed by Punch (13.8% to 6.7) and St Austell (13.5% to 8.2). When tenants give a rating to the pubco taking everything into consideration, St Austell’s rating has seen the biggest increase, 11.1% to 8.8, followed by Shepherd Neame (8% to 8.1) and Thwaites (7.7% to 7.9).
Other areas of improvement this year include training. The ratings for all key training metrics – general training provided, development training for tenants and their staff and the company support website – all increased year-on-year. St Austell was the top performer, achieving 8.7 for general training against a study average of 6.7. Shepherd Neame and Admiral were in second and third place respectively.
Tenants’ opinions of their business development manager (BDM) also improved – measuring 7.6 against 7.5 last year. St Austell, Shepherd Neame and Thwaites lead in BDM ratings.
Support for food menu /choices showed a significant increase – up from 5.4 last year to 6.3. All of the national companies – Star, Punch, Greene King, Marston’s, Enterprise and Admiral, saw their ratings in this category increase year-on-year.
On the continued success of St Austell in the programme, MCA’s market analysis manager, Peter Linden, said: “The company improved on 23 out of 25 key ratings year-on-year, including on recruitment (pre-entry induction training, up 39% to 9.3), marketing and advertising (up 28% to 7.3) and support with the range of food (up 23% to 7.9).
“Their pubs enjoy the strongest sales in the industry, thanks to a relatively high share of food sales and attractive locations, often in coastal areas. St Austell is rated highly for the range of drinks despite having a comparatively narrow range, indicating its tenants are happy with the choice of beers available. These factors combined with highly rated BDMs with comparatively small catchment areas of pubs, help explain why St Austell continues to be a success story. “
Adam Luck, retail director at St Austell, said: “We are delighted to have come out top in the latest Tenant Track survey and to have increased our scores from last time. We have introduced a number of initiatives that have worked well in our managed estate such as free mystery customer visits which include net promoter scores and enrolled tenants and their teams on our bespoke “Brewing a Passion” customer service training programme to help promote best retail practices.
“We have stepped up our programme of carrying out smaller capital investments with our tenants such as garden and bedroom schemes to help drive business and our BDMs have sharpened their focus on providing sound financial and business support for our tenants particularly in the first year of their tenure.”
To find out more about the Tenant Track programme, please contact peter.linden@mca-insight.com
