Written evidence submitted by Scottish
and Newcastle Pub Company
INTRODUCTION
Scottish & Newcastle Pub Company (SNPC) is an
operating company of Heineken UK. SNPC operates approximately
1,300 pubs in the UK. All SNPC pubs are free from tie for wines
and spirits. Around 55% of SNPC are tied for beer, cider, RTDs
and soft drinks. A further 40% are tied for beer, cider and RTDs
but have no mineral tie. Finally, around 5% of the estate is free
from all tie.
To inform the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee
of the efforts of the industry to introduce and deliver the code,
we have shared information with the BBPA. This has been used to
produce the BBPA response to this enquiry which we fully endorse.
The purpose of this note is to outline the specific action that
SNPC has taken since the 2009 Business, Innovation and Skills
Select Committee enquiry.
INDUSTRY FRAMEWORK
CODE IMPLEMENTATION
Following the 2009 Business, Innovation and Skills
Select Committee enquiry, we acknowledged the need for change.
The prime vehicle for achieving that change has been the "Industry
Framework Code" which was agreed between the BBPA and the
British Institute of Innkeeping in January 2010.
Scottish and Newcastle Pub Company consulted with
its lessees prior to the writing its Code of Practice. Road-shows
were held in various locations around the country and all lessees
were invited to attend the event closest to their outlet along
with representatives from the BII.
The code was presented to the BII Benchmarking and
Accreditation Service committee on 16 of June 2010. Formal accreditation
was received in July and the committee agreed that SNPC would
make the necessary systems changes to deliver the commitments
contained in the code by the end of 2010. We introduced elements
of the code incrementally in the second half of 2010, as changes
to our systems allowed, and the code of practice was published
and fully implemented from 1 January 2011.
The company invested £100,000 on designing,
printing, implementing and sharing the code with lessees. There
is a further ongoing cost associated with each new let for SNPC.
The Code of Practice must be printed and Management time taken
to explain the code to new lessees.
FURTHER SUPPORT
TO SNPC LESSEES
The Business, Innovation and Skills Committee have
also asked for individual companies to provide evidence on whether
pub companies have built upon the minimum requirements of the
code. We would like to draw your attention to a number of areas
where SNPC have gone further than the requirements of the code.
SNPC is committed to supporting its lessees. During
2010, SNPC invested over £1 million on promotional and marketing
support for tenants on areas such as food development, promotion
of the 2010 world cup and on the advertisement of sport in live
premises.
In addition to the activity across the estate at
a local level, the company's Business Development Managers have
a budget to support local pub specific activity and approximately
£900,000 was invested by the company during 2010 in the form
of promotional credits to rent accounts.
During 2010, SNPC launched the industry leading "Bar
Boosters" initiative, a programme to help lessees develop
alternative/ complementary income streams. SNPC set up competitive
deals with suppliers and wholesalers to offer lessees the opportunity
to profit from activities as diverse as selling groceries, acting
as Dry Cleaning agents, installing electronic bill payment terminals
for consumes, organising in-pub home shopping events and offering
daytime coffee and wireless internet access. These schemes were
designed to broaden the income streams within each site and to
cement our pubs' position within their respective communities.
Over 25% of the estate signed up for at least one activity in
2010.
SNPC is committed to training its lessees prior to
taking a lease with the company. Our British Institute of Innkeeping
(BII) accredited course "Inside Knowledge" is a five
day residential course which provides a foundation in the skills
needed to operate a profitable business in the licensed trade.
There were 385 attendees during 2010.
20 June 2011
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