Punch Taverns may still have years to go before it earns the full trust of its licensees, according to boss Roger Whiteside.
He told an audience of colleagues that the process of creating trust with licensees isn’t something that happens overnight – and will need years of consistent behaviour throughout the company.
He told the Tenanted Pub Company Summit, hosted by M&C Report and Publican's Morning Advertiser: “You don’t earn trust overnight.
"It will take years of consistent behaviour demonstrated from the very top of the business right the way through all the layers of management so it hits the ground at the coal-face, of behaving in ways that engender trust.
“In the years to come we should earn that trust – but we’re certainly not there now. If we surveyed our licensees I wouldn’t be happy with the result because we’ve still to earn that trust.”
Industry expert Phil Dixon praised Punch for “making a real effort” to create trust in the relationship between itself and licensees.
He cited its Roadshows as an example of one area where it was attempting to engage with its retailers and create trust.
Dixon criticised Enterprise Inns for not developing a deeper relationship of trust with licensees.
He said: “The difficulty with Enterprise is that it missed a trick when it bought Unique – (not) taking on the Unique culture of having that relationship (with licensees).
“Enterprise has to get closer to their customers - you never meet anyone in this industry who saying I’m proud to be Enterprise.
“They haven’t built that relationship up and I think that’s an error. It can de done – Punch has made great strides in that area and I think Enterprise need to learn a lesson.”
Enterprise Inns divisional director Nick Light said: “It’s clear the relationship varies enormously.
"We have done a survey recently where 83% of our licensees rate the relationship as fair, good or excellent. While that’s encouraging, it’s the 17% that’s the worry.
“We’re got to make sure that ratio gets smaller and smaller. I take the point Phil made about Unique Pub Company – I worked there.
“We used to conduct retailer boards where we would get a group of informed licensees together and tell us here we were going wrong and hopefully put us on the right path.
“We’ve re-introduced those in the past 12 months. We held them across the country and not hold mini-roadshows in the regions.
“Some of the comments Phil’s made are not without justification but I do think progress is being made in this area.”
