Vianet, the beer monitoring equipment provider, saw a decline in revenue for the year ending 31 March 2014 as it felt the impact of the impending statutory code and the revisions on how flow monitoring equipment should be used by pub companies.
The overhanging legislation has cost the business as it has incurred costs of legal fees and getting advice on the code and its implications but James Dickson, chairman of Vianet, told M&C Report the biggest cost is the impact on the business has been in terms of reduced capital spend.
The flow monitoring company has seen a reduction in capital spend as pub companies have anticipated a change in regulations. “We hope to see a return to capital spend on flow equipment and hope to see an end of disposals of pubs. Pub companies have taken the opportunity to divest of poorer performing pubs and clean up their estates and hopefully the industry is moving on to a policy of growth,” said Dickson.
The code, as announced by government last week, will remain the same as the existing voluntary industry framework by saying flow monitoring equipment data can be used to support the beer tie but it must be supported by other evidence.
Dickson said: “We were very happy that the government took the time out to consider the elements and to understand our business and to see how the technology should be used for the good of the sector.”
Meanwhile, Vianet has completed trials with a number of pub companies of its iDraught monitoring system that has been used in 296 installaiotns in the UK and US, which have been “very positive” according to chief executive Stuart Darling.
The system is built on the same premise as the previous flow meters but carries more on-board electronics and sensors. Darling said it can provide pub managers with a greater amount of information in terms of cross-estate reporting, not just for individual pubs, to identify trends.
Darling said: “We would like to beat the 296 installations of last year in this year; we would expect to be substantially ahead of that.”
